FRANKFURT — Chinese battery manufacturer Svolt has unveiled plans to build an additional cell assembly plant in Germany to supply electric vehicles, picking the state of Brandenburg – also home to Tesla’s gigafactory – as a location.
The planned site in Lauchhammer would have a capacity of 16 gigawatt hours per year and start production in 2025, a spokesperson representing the company, which is a spinoff of Chinese automaker Great Wall Motors, said.
“The shift towards electromobility, but also government decisions, are driving demand for electric vehicles,” Svolt CEO Hongxin Yang said.
“Svolt is responding to this market dynamic with steady expansion by building additional local capacities.”
Svolt took over the Lauchhammer site, including buildings and infrastructure, from Vestas, a manufacturer of wind turbines, in August.
Svolt in 2020 announced investments of up to 2 billion euros ($2.01 billion) to build a cell production facility as well as a module and pack factory in the south-western German state of Saarland with a planned production capacity of 24 GWh.
The plant will supply EV batteries to Stellantis.