Chinese SVOLT, a spin-off of Great Wall Motors, was supposed to have spent 19 billion on a battery factory for electric cars in Germany. Now the project dies.
The Chinese battery manufacturer SVOLT has made it clear that it will close its European operations by January next year.
The plans for two production facilities in Germany have been dropped. SVOLT justifies the decision with falling sales of electric cars in Europe and increasing trade barriers between the EU and China.
Originally part of Great Wall Motors, SVOLT will now focus on technical services, storage facilities, engineering support, logistics and maintenance in Europe. This marks a shift from ambitious production targets to a more limited presence in the region.
This is written by CNEV Post .
The closure concerns two planned factories in Germany: a facility for module and package assembly in Saarland and a cell factory in Brandenburg.
The assembly plant, which the Chinese told about for the first time in 2020, should have produced up to 24 GWh packages annually with an investment of DKK 19 billion.
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Production was scheduled to start in mid-2024 but was delayed. The cell factory, plans for which were shared with the public in 2022, should have been SVOLT's first foreign cell factory, with production starting in 2025.
SVOLT is China's eighth largest battery manufacturer with a market share of 2.36 percent. But the company has had difficulty establishing itself both at home and abroad.
Plans for a listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, STAR Market, in late 2022 were officially dropped last December. And now the European plans are also crumbling.
SVOLT supplies batteries for the Citroën e-C3. There is limited information on other supply contracts in Europe, but Rho Motion suggests that SVOLT may have had a contract with even BMW.
Other battery manufacturers are also struggling to establish themselves in Europe. In September, Volvo's joint venture with Northvolt requested DKK 8 billion in funding from the Swedish government. The money was to be used to complete a factory in Gothenburg.
Northvolt asked for the money just a few months after it became clear that BMW had torn a contract worth 14 billion Danish kroner in the middle. Read more about it here .
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