LG Chem’s plant in Poland will produce up to 65 GWh of batteries annually. EIB will help to finance one-third of the €1.5 billion investment.
The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced a €480 million ($527 million) loan agreement with LG Chem Wroclaw Energy (a fully-owned Poland-based subsidiary of LG Chem).
The financial boost will cover about a third of the total cost – estimated at €1.5 billion ($1.65 billion) – of the lithium-ion cell production plant in Wroclaw, Poland.
“The financing will be used for the construction and operation of highly automated and innovative manufacturing facilities for advanced lithium-ion (li-ion) cells and batteries for battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs).”
“The additional manufacturing facilities will be located on the industrial site of LG Chem Wroclaw Energy in south-west Poland.”
“The project supplements smaller production facilities on the same site and presents several novelties, including a fully smart factory with several newly developed cutting-edge technologies to mass-produce the latest generation of high energy density li-ion electrodes, cells, modules and battery packs, thereby significantly improving energy density, fast-charging capability, safety and cost efficiency.’
According to the EIB’s press release, the loan is to expand manufacturing capacity by 35 GWh. The total output at some point in the future will be 65 GWh annually.
The remaining €1 billion investment comes from LG Chem’s own resources and from other financing sources. A quick calculation shows that LG Chem assumes about €23 million per 1 GWh of annual manufacturing capacity.
With 65 GWh of annual output, the LG Chem plant will be not only the biggest in Europe but probably also globally (at least it seems so considering there will be no expansion of the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada from the 35 GWh it’s at now).
This one factory should be able to ultimately supply lithium-ion cells for one million long-range all-electric cars annually (assuming an average of 65 kWh per car).
“The EIB-backed project will have an annual production capacity of over 35 GWh, which can potentially power more than 500 000 zero-emission electric cars per year and therefore contribute to the transition from fossil fuel-powered internal combustion engine-based vehicles toward electromobility and sustainable transport.”
“The implementation of the new investment programme will enable the company to ramp up its battery capacity output to ca. 65 GWh, making the Polish facility one of the largest lithium-ion cell factories in the world. Moreover, more than 1 800 jobs will be created at the Wroclaw site, taking the total workforce up to more than 6 000 full-time employees by end-2022.”
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