Electric Vehicle Battery Factory Race Heats Up In Europe
Battery sources are critical for any companies trying to to keep up in the race to field compelling long-range electric vehicles, and the competitors are already jostling for position. From a slow start, Mercedes, VW, and BMW have changed pace and accelerated battery production plans.
From article, (Scania (VW Group) has announced its intention to be part of the largest battery cell manufacturer in Europe. “Northolt’s Carlsson wants the Skelleftea plant to rival US electric carmaker Tesla’s Gigafactory in the Nevada desert, and aims to produce a total battery storage capacity of 32 gigawatt-hours (GWh) a year by 2023.”
VW is gaining, but it is not racing alone. Rivals BMW and Mercedes-Benz are turning it up a notch on their own battery supplies.
A major South Korean manufacturer, Reuters noted in August 2017 that “SK Innovation supplies batteries to Mercedes-Benz, South Korea’s Kia Motors as well as China’s BAIC Motor Corp.”
Other reporting from November 2017: “The South Korean EV battery maker said it is set to break ground on a 840 million-won plant in Hungary in February. The 430,000-square-meter plant is capable of producing EV cells with a combined 7.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year, beginning in 2020.” That factory entailed an investment of approximately $777 million.
SK is also expanding domestically. “Also Thursday, SK Innovation announced its plan to expand EV battery production lines in Seosan, some 150 kilometers south of Seoul. The latest investment will raise domestic production capacity of EV cells to a combined 4.7 GWh.”
So, that’s a targeted 32 GWh from Northvolt (+ Scania/VW Group), 12 GWh from SK Innovation (7.5 GWh in Europe), and a couple other major battery producers in the wings who we’ll get to in a moment.
In a sign of just how rapidly the market and technology are developing, major car companies have been signaling their expectations with a sudden turn in predictions for electric vehicle sales volume. To an extent, this is a message to battery suppliers that they really do want batteries — and need production to grow quickly.
LG Chem has announced expansion plans in Europe with a new factory in Poland, but it will only be the largest in Europe for a while, with Volkswagen and Mercedes/SK Innovation partnerships vying for the lead. The annual GWh capacity has not been shared, but the investment totals approximately $387 million. There was an estimated figure of 100,000 EV batteries a year thrown out there, but it has not been clear what size batteries LG Chem is talking about in those EVs.
All in all, it’s shaping up to be an exciting contest, and EV fans are eager to watch the race. A list of contestants and their battery sources from a previous CleanTechnica article is as follows:
- Panasonic (supplies Tesla and Toyota as well as certain models from Mercedes and Ford)
- LG Chem (supplies Audi, Chrysler, Ford, GM, Hyundai, Nissan, Renault, smart, Volkswagen, Volvo)
- Samsung SDI (supplies BMW, Fiat, Mercedes, Porsche)
- SK Innovation (supplies Kia and BMW)
- BYD (supplies BYD)
- AESC (supplies Nissan, but it looks like Nissan is shifting to LG Chem)
- GS Yuasa (supplies Honda, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Citroen)
Other lists exist that help to illuminate this market, and the list of car company products and battery suppliers is changing rapidly. But we don’t really know yet where all the batteries will come from to produce electrified versions of every Mercedes-Benz model, electrified versions of every BMW model, millions of Volkswagen electric vehicles a year by 2022, 40 electrified Ford models by 2025, 20 EV models from GM by 2023, 8 fully electric Renault models and 12 more electrified Renault models, etc. The battery factories noted above show progress, but we’ll need a lot more announcements in the coming 3–5 years if those targets are to be correct. Stay tuned.)
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