South Korea’s LG Chem is planning to open the largest lithium-ion battery factory in Europe to aide the continent’s automotive industry as it prepares its much-hyped shift toward EV production. According to LG, construction of the battery plant — located in Wrocław, Poland — is set to begin immediately and batteries should be ready for slotting into vehicles before the end of next year.
In a an announcement, the company said the plant would have a production capacity of 100,000 batteries per year for EVs that can run up to 199 miles once charged. Previous estimates were more conservative but, with German automakers promising widespread electrification, LG saw no reason for half measures.
“We will turn the Poland EV battery plant into a mecca of battery production for electric vehicles around the world,” said company president UB Lee. “As LG Chem’s Poland EV battery plant is the first large-scale automotive lithium battery production plant in Europe, it will play the role of vitalizing the electric vehicle industry across the whole of Europe. We will put all our efforts into making the plant into a main production hub for EV batteries.”
The factory will employ roughly 2,500 people. LG Chem did not name prospective customers but said they would include top car companies — although Volvo Cars would be a safe bet, since the two companies already announced a partnership last December.
By adding roughly 6 Gigawatt hours of energy production, building the plant in Poland would effectively double LG’s battery capacity for electric vehicles for a total annual capacity of 280,000 EVs — with help from its other factories in South Korea, the United States, and China.
[Image: LG Chem] [Source: Reuters]
The dust still hasn’t settled on battery technologies. Presently it’s Lithium ion liquid/gel vs solid state. Breaking there’s talk of a Lithium-Carbon with instant full-charge being developed but it’s in the lab stage right now. And ya know for an EV the batteries are presently the most expensive mechanical component – not the motor.
No reason battery technology shouldn’t have been developed from the 70’s. You know who to blame that on…
“You know who to blame that on…”
Bush? Trump?
Carter…
And sodium/phosphurous batteries. The Germans are developing this.
These will half the price of litium.
Bosch and VW are looking at this.
Being close to many of the labs around MIT, I get bits and pieces of information about new battery tech. Of course the tough part is the years it takes to get these technologies to the market from the lab. Lab to to mass production is a huge step. Not only is it a tough step, the companies kind of go into stealth mode and will only talk if you’re under an NDA. The auto companies get those agreements and know stuff that isn’t available to the general public.
My guess is that a shit-storm of battery tech is going to hit in the early 2020’s and auto makers and others know about it through multiple NDAs. That’s why everyone is jumping on the electric bandwagon and you have companies like Shell getting into the charging business and Chargepoint deploying monster 400kW chargers.
we still occasionally have trouble keeping lithium on a leash. Sodium is even nastier.
Just a quick reading of LIBs shows the early efforts by Exxon were highly toxic and a workable battery didn’t arrive till the mid to late 70’s. Really it appears a practical battery for consumer use didn’t arrive until the 90’s and it’s been going pretty good since.
I’d says it’s less Big Oil conspiracy and more just a practical matter of getting a safe affordable product out there.
40 some odd years isn’t too bad going from ground zero to what we are seeing now.
Not to mention how dirt cheap petroleum and internal combustion engines were in comparison.
Battery and motor technology just had to get to the point where it was an attractive alternative to the internal combustion engine.
Which if I had to guess was a perfect storm event. The end of the cold war, the fall of the iron curtain,a gas crisis or two, Chernobly, Fukishima, observable rapid climate change and so on creating the will for large scale investment on the part of governments and businesses leading to where we are now.
Change any if those elements and I think a practical EV would be in the basement along with the phish carburetor.
Ha ha. You said phish carburetor. You lost all credibility.
Where is this “observable rapid climate change you speak of?
https://xkcd.com/1732/
This just in from Sputnik and RT:
LG building future Russian Federation battery factory in occupied Poland.
This article does need a better headline. Poland isn’t building a battery factory; LG is building a battery factory in Poland.
LG and GM are working close together with EVs.
I wonder when LG will build its own ‘Gigafactory’ in the US?
Or, will cheaper GMs come from Asia to offer more compdtitive consumer type vehicles?
Again, more competition for Musk. How well serup is Musk to challenge competition? Not well from what I see.
Gigafactory 1 will have 150 GWh of capacity when it’s complete, which is 25x the capacity of this plant in Poland.
I doubt Mr Musk sees this as much competition.
SCE to AUX,
I know you think anything from Musk is great. But, first he needs to have his Gigafactory produce all those Megawatts of battery. If his projections are anything like his Tesla projections, many less Megawatts seems to be where it is. Secondly, any competition is competition. Unlike Musk LG will have more battery factories near where the batteries are needed and sold.
Did ya hear the one about the Polish battery factory?
“Jakub, your electric battery, why don’t it work no more?”
“Oh, Kacper, don’t ya know, the battery’s fine, but the wind-up key was made by Kobe Steel!”
A coal powered battery factory for “clean” EVs? Poland is the 2nd largest coal user in the Europe, with only “clean” Germany ahead since coal is replacing Germany’s “dirty” nuclear plants Of course those coal power plants will also be charging up those coal produced batteries, so I’m sure the world will be breathing much easier.
Should we refrain from developing any cleaner technology until all energy sources are clean?
A coal powered battery factory for “clean” EVs? Poland is the 2nd largest coal user in the Europe, with only “clean” Germany ahead since coal is replacing Germany’s “dirty” nuclear plants. Of course those coal power plants will also be charging up those coal produced batteries, so I’m sure the world will be breathing much easier.
You can say that again -:)
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/10/germany-leads-record-wind-power-growth-in-europe
“Record amount of wind power capacity installed across EU in 2014, more than new gas and coal capacity combined, reports BusinessGreen”
Google “fsatest growing energy source”
Why would anyone build a lithium battery plant when the ttac chatterati says there will be lithium shortages?