BEIJING, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese power battery manufacturers have been speeding up overseas expansion such as factory construction amid rising demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage globally.
Institutions forecast that the installed capacity of global power battery market is expected to develop from GWh to TWh scale and further grow and exceed 3TWh by 2030, in which China's power battery installed capacity is expected to account for about 45 percent.
-- Overseas supply chain enhancing
A worker is busy at a battery company plant of Gotion High-tech Co., Ltd. in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, June 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Huang Bohan)
Gotion High-Tech’s wholly-owned subsidiary in the U.S. is working on building a battery factory in the U.S. focusing on lithium-ion cells, Pack and energy storage system integration. Located in Manteno Town, Kankakee County, Illinois, the plant is expected to have 10GWh annual battery pack production capacity and 40GWh annual cell production capacity when put into production, reported China Securities Journal.
Reconstructed based on an existing local factory, Gotion High-Tech's Illinois plant will be completed in two phases, covering an area of 910 mu (approximately 606,666.67 square meters). The plant is scheduled to start production in 2024 after the first phase of renovation completes. It will become the Illinois' largest power battery investment project to date. 2,600 local jobs will be created.
Source with Gotion High-Tech noted that the plant will help enhance the company's supply capacity to existing and potential partners in North America to meet the growing battery demand of the EV industry.
Li Zhen, Chairman of Gotion High-Tech, noted that it took one year for Gotion High-Tech to finally settle in Illinois to build a battery factory. It is expected that Gotion High-Tech's global battery production capacity, including the first phase of the Illinois plant, will exceed 200GWh by the end of next year, . "We did not build a new factory in Illinois, but renovated an old factory. We are to reproduce the glory of the past, which represents our care and respect to the resources", Li said.
Globally, Gotion High-Tech has partnered with U.S. Rivian, TATA of India, VinFast of Vietnam and other companies, according to Haitong International, noting that the company also pocketed new customers this year such as AION of Guangzhou Automobile, Aya of Hozon Auto, among others. Gotion High-Tech has also been admitted into the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance supplier system, and become Volkswagen's overseas designated suppliers which expects to cover 80 percent of Volkswagen car models in the future. These will all boost the company's overseas sales to grow even faster, Haitong International noted.
-- Global production expanding
EVE Energy announced on September 6 that it has signed the MoU with RIMAC TECHNOLOGY d.o.o. at IAA Exhibition in Munich, Germany, under which the two companies will collaborate on the production of cutting-edge battery products in Europe starting from 2027, working together to create a sustainable and localized EV supply chain to support the green transformation of Europe's transportation and energy sector.
EVE ENERGY US Holding LLC ("EVE US"), a wholly-owned sub-subsidiary of EVE Energy, entered into an agreement On September 5 with Electrified Power, Daimler Truck and PACCAR to set up a joint venture company in the United States, which will invest in battery production. It is learned that the batteries produced by the joint venture company will be mainly used in designated commercial vehicles in North America.
In addition, EVE Energy's Malaysia factory held the groundbreaking ceremony on August 7 this year, the fifty-third factory of EVE Energy. Involving an investment of no more than 422.3 million U.S. dollars, the Malaysia factory is located in Jurin County, Kedah State, Malaysia, and will mainly produce 21700 cylindrical batteries for power tools and two-wheeled EVs once completed.
SUNWODA EVB, the subsidiary of SUNWODA, through its subsidiary Hungary SUNWODA EVB invested about 1.9 billion yuan in August this year in Hungary to construct the first phase of new energy automobile power battery factory. It is mainly engaged in lithium-ion batteries, power battery system manufacturing and sales, and other businesses.
It is noted that the Hungary project is the first own production base of SUNWODA in Europe, also the third overseas factory of SUNWODA since its globalization initiated in New Delhi, India in 2017.
The EV market is still in its rapid growth phase with the long-term development trend of new energy. Compared to domestic market, low penetration in the European and U.S. markets still poses large potential. Adding that the energy storage market has not yet been fully developed in those markets, battery industry will have huge potential for growth amid the growing demand of new energy vehicle and the potential of energy storage sector, according to Orient Securities. (Edited by Niu Huizhe with Xinhua Silk Road, niuhuizhe@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
