US lithium-ion battery maker Boston Power is to ramp up its battery production at the company’s Chinese manufacturing plants in Liyang and Tianjin.
The Boston-headquartered firm plans a 5-fold production capacity increase at the Liyang plant by 2016 as well as a production scale-up of up to 4GWh per annum by 2017 and 8GWh by 2018 at the Tianjin plant.
Boston Power’s lithium battery is designed for electric vehicle applications and achieves 200Wh/kg.
According to the company’s CEO Sonny Wu, Boston Power aims to rival Tesla in the lithium-ion battery market for cars. “The market for EVs is very exciting given the backdrop of Tesla – but Tesla, that’s just the beginning,” said Wu in an interview with Green Tech Media.
The company partners with Chinese auto manufacturers such as ZD to produce four-seater electric cars with an 80-mile to 120-mile range.
The Chinese government funded the battery maker one month ago with $290m.
In 2011, Boston Power moved its entire manufacturing to China, while maintaining an R&D facility in the US.
Tesla fell 6% in trading after founder Elon Musk said that the company’s EV sales in China were “unexpectedly weak” in the fourth quarter of 2014.