The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (ERBD) has extended a long-term loan of €250 million ($275 million) to support the construction of Korean battery maker LG Chem’s European lithium-ion gigafactory.
The company is set to build a battery production plant in Wrocław in western Poland in three phases.
The Wroclaw facility will produce lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and is set to be the first fully integrated plant in Europe to produce all battery components, from electrodes to cells, modules and final packs.
With a total investment of €2.8 billion ($3 billion) in three stages, the Wroclaw plant is expected to completed in 2022.
When fully operational, the plant will have a annual production capacity of around 65-70GWh or enough packs for one million EVs a year.
In January, the European Commission found Poland’s €36 million ($39.5 million) investment aid to LG Chem for a new electric vehicle batteries plant was in line with EU State aid rules.
The €36 million investment aid granted by Poland will support LG Chem’s €325 million ($357 million) investment in a new vertically integrated manufacturing plant for the production of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries in the Dolnoślaskie region of Poland.
