China's SVOLT picks same German state as Tesla for second battery cell plant
FRANKFURT, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Chinese battery manufacturer SVOLT Energy Technology on Friday unveiled plans to build an additional cell assembly 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 (GWh) per year and start production in 2025, a spokesperson representing the company said.
"The shift towards electromobility, but also government decisions, are driving demand for electric vehicles," SVOLT Chief Executive Hongxin Yang said. "SVOLT is responding to this market dynamic with steady expansion by building additional local capacities."
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.
($1 = 0.9960 euros) (Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Editing by Miranda Murray)
