China’s Svolt battery firm chooses Germany

CHINESE EV battery manufacturer Svolt – one of the world’s top 10 EV battery manufacturers and a subsidiary of Great Wall Motors – has selected the German state of Brandenburg as the location for its second production facility.

The location in the German city of Lauchhammer is close Tesla’s German gigafactory site and will supply EV batteries to the Stellantis group.

The brownfield project will make over a facility previously operated by wind turbine manufacturer, Vestas.

The planned battery cell plant will repurpose and extend the facility to begin production of EV batteries from 2025. It is expected to have an annual capacity of 16 gigawatt hours (GWh) per annum.

Lauchhammer is Svolt’s second German site behind its already established facility in Heusweiler, Ssarland. The firm says its two facilities will share synergies with Lauchhammer also serving as a research and development centre for high-voltage batteries, battery materials and a new cobalt-free battery known as the NMX cell.

“The additional production site in Germany is an important milestone for the further expansion of SVOLT – in Europe, but also globally,” said Svolt Energy Technology chairman and CEO, Hongxin Yang.

“I am looking forward to our planned battery factory contributing to the further expansion of sustainable electromobility in Europe. Both in Europe and in the Asia-Pacific region, we see a strong increase in demand for battery systems.”

“The shift towards electromobility, but also government decisions, are driving demand for electric vehicles. SVOLT is responding to this market dynamic with steady expansion by building additional local capacities.”

“Our sites close to our customers positively impact delivery routes and times – and thus the overall sustainability of electric vehicles,” he said.

In 2020, Svolt announced investments of up to €2.0 billion ($A2.9b) to build a cell production facility as well as a module and pack factory at its Heusweiler site in south-western Germany with a planned annual production capacity of 24GWh.

Svolt’s announcement is the latest in a spate of similar news from EV battery producers including LG Energy Solutions, Eurocell-EMEA, EVE Energy Co.,and Contemporary Aperex Technology Co., the majority of which are Chinese-owned and Europe-based in order to best supply their product to vehicle manufacturers in a cost-effective and timely manner.