Svolt, a spin-off of Chinese car maker Great Wall Motor, said it will cancel plans to build a battery manufacturing factory in Brandenburg near Berlin, Germany.
The company develops and produces lithium-ion batteries and battery systems for EVs and energy storage systems.
It has planned manufacturing plants at three European locations, two in Saarland in Germany and one in Brandenburg. The latter, with a capacity of 16GWh, has been cancelled due to market distortions and a significant customer project being called off, the company said.
“The automotive market is currently struggling with considerable fluctuations and challenges all over the world, mainly driven by the transformation to electric mobility,” said Kai-Uwe Wollenhaupt, president of Svolt Europe and senior vice president of Svolt Energy Technology Company.
Svolt confirmed plans for the setting up of a manufacturing facility in Überherrn, though said it has been hit by a legal challenge, and the necessary building law and permit are not in place either. Its first European factory was supposed to be up and running by the end of 2023. The use of the site, in Saarland, is still being planned, it said. The complete turnkey handover of the site is due to take place on 1 July, 2024.
Despite already closed deals with European automotive manufacturers, for example for the Citroën ë-C3, which will be equipped with an LFP battery supplied by Svolt with a 44kWh capacity, Svolt seems to have modified its strategy.
It said: “In addition to the sale of individualised battery systems for electric cars, Svolt Europe will now also focus on business areas in which standardised batteries and their systems can be used, included batteries for commercial vehicles, stationary energy storage systems and their battery cells.”
