Turkish technology giant Zorlu has signed a partnership deal with Chinese private capital firm GSR Capital that paves the way to building a 25GW capacity battery manufacturing plant in Turkey for electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
Zorlu will invest a total $4.5 billion in the project by 2023 – the year in which the plant is to be commissioned.
The battery project will be run by Zorlu subsidiary Vestel, in which GSR – which last year led Chinese investors in a takeover of Nissan’s battery business – will take a 50% stake.
Initial “operations” on the project are expected to start before the end of this year, the companies said.
Zorlu CEO Őmer Yüngül (centre) said the venture would “start with a battery pack business for electric cars and power storage”. “We are exploring the possibility of setting up a 25GW capacity battery production facility on an area of about 300,000 square metres.”
Zorlu said the deal with GSR also provides for a 50-50 partnership between another of its subsidiaries, Meta Nikel, Zorlu’s Turkish R&D and mining company that started pilot nickel production in 2014.
According to Zorlu, investments under the partnership “will earn the Turkish economy a high added value export revenue of $6 billion in the long run” with jobs for around 4,000.
Zorlu and GSR will also launch centres for R&D into battery materials, mechanics and software in Tukey, China and Japan, Zorlu said.
GSR co-chair Jianghua Su said the move “will be a key part of our business development in Europe”. “In addition to electric cars, we will join forces to offer innovative products in many fields related to energy storage. We will work together to become one of the strongest players in the global innovation economy of the future.”
Zorlu CEO Őmer Yüngül said: “With this partnership we plan to fourfold our (nickel) production capacity from today’s annual 10,000 tons. We are currently producing concentrated nickel through Metal Nikel. With the new sulfate investment to be made under the partnership deal, we will start producing nickel sulfate and cobalt sulfate used in batteries.”
Yüngül said Zorlu will also invest in building a sulfuric acid production facility in Gördes, Turkey. The company currently imports sulfuric acid to use in nickel production processes.
