Battery boom: meet Germany’s ‘gigafactories’

In Grünheide, Brandenburg, construction is already well underway for Tesla’s e-car manufacturing facility. And, according to Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk, the world’s biggest battery factory is to be built right next door. According to the US car manufacturer’s plans, it could boast a capacity of 100, one day possibly even 250 GWh.

The construction of another battery factory, directly adjacent to Tesla, is also already in full swing. Microvast, founded in Texas in 2006, has set up its European headquarters in Ludwigsfelde, not far from Berlin, where it plans to assemble battery modules for the European market from Q1 of 2021. Their Chinese affiliate Microvast Power Systems Co. Ltd. will provide the necessary cells, which are suitable for e-cars, buses and more. At some point in the near future, the company wants to hit a manufacturing capacity of six GWh. Unlike the other manufacturers on this list, Microvast is not intending to produce cells in Germany, but will instead be focussing on building modules.

Chinese battery manufacturer Farasis has found a strong partner for its plans to expand into the German market. None other than Mercedes Benz AG of the Daimler Group has secured a three percent stake in the lithium-ion-battery technology company. The automotive group hopes to harness this partnership to strengthen its e-mobility activities, and Farasis is building a factory in Saxony-Anhalt for this purpose. The plant’s entirely carbon-neutral design sets it apart from the factories of its competitors.

The company already has research centres in the US and Germany, but until now manufacturing has been limited to two plants in China. The first batteries are to be manufactured in Bitterfeld-Wolfen in 2022. Initially with a capacity of eight to ten GWh, Farasis will later have up to 16 GWh. Yet this East German location will not only manufacture batteries for electric cars. In the long term, the site is set to grow to become a centre of excellence, boasting everything from R&D to recycling – all combined under one roof. This could lead to the creation of up to 2000 jobs over time.

Volkswagen is hoping to have built a factory for lithium-ion battery cells, together with Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt AB, at its Salzgitter plant by 2024. The group plans to invest 450 million euros in the ‘Northvolt 2’ manufacturing facility. According to the carmaker, manufacturing capacity is initially pegged at 16 GWh.

“In addition to securing external suppliers, we are building up additional capacity,” says Dr Stefan Sommer, Volkswagen Group Board Member for Components and Procurement and a member of the Northvolt AB Board of Directors. To this end, Volkswagen and Northvolt established a joint venture back in September 2019 to make way for the series production of lithium-ion batteries in Germany. Constructing the buildings and necessary infrastructure is the next step on the road to a future dominated by e-mobility.

Chinese battery producer and the world’s largest manufacturer of battery cells, Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), is heading to Erfurt, Thuringia to build its first factory outside its home market. From 2022, lithium-ion batteries set for the European market are to be manufactured at the 23-hectare site of the insolvent photovoltaics manufacturer Solarworld. Initially with a capacity of 14 GWh, it will later grow to accommodate up to 24 GWh. This will create around 2000 jobs by 2024.

“The automotive industry in Germany holds considerable sway and is also home to several of CATL’s key customers,” says Matthias Zentgraf, Co-President Europe of CATL. The company has already developed partnerships with a slew of well-known companies to sell its energy storage solutions: BMW, Volkswagen, Daimler, Bosch and Volvo have all expressed an interest in the batteries of this Chinese-German collaboration.

SVOLT Energy Technology is another Chinese battery manufacturer expanding into Europe. More precisely, to Überherrn in Saarland. Following a split-off from Chinese automobile group Great Wall Motors, SVOLT is now cooperating with BMW, among others. The market is set to soon include other vehicle manufacturers, German and French in particular, with the construction of a factory on the ‘Linslerfeld’, an area near the French border. SVOLT is aiming to have completed the first construction phase, with a capacity of six GWh, by 2023. There is talk of more capacity to follow, as much as 24 GWh in the final stages, depending on how demand develops over time.

Another car manufacturer has its sights set on producing its e-car batteries in Germany together with Opel. This will lead to the construction of one of the largest gigafactories in the country in Kaiserslautern. Together with Opel’s parent company PSA and battery company Saft, a subsidiary of Total, the German group has formed a joint venture to join battery manufacturing forces in Europe. Another factory, in addition to the one in Rhineland-Palatinate, is planned for Douvrin in northern France. From 2023 onwards, both plants are to go into operation in steps of three blocks and eight GWh capacity apiece. This will bring the total capacity up to 48 GWh. Or in other words – enough to equip 500,000 Opel Corsa-e models with batteries.