San Francisco-based lithium-ion tech company Farasis Energy is pushing ahead with plans to open a “large-scale” European lithium-ion cell production facility after securing financing “exceeding US$1 billion”.
The investment boost from C-round financing comes just two months after the company established a new manufacturing base in Zhenjiang, China with a planned annual capacity of 20 gigawatt-hours.
Farasis CEO Yu Wang said: “We are excited about establishing a formal European headquarters and are currently selecting the final site for a large-scale lithium-ion cell, module and systems manufacturing plant in the European Union.”
The new facility, scheduled for 2021, follows the establishment of Farasis’ ‘European Manufacturing Center Project’ development base in Stuttgart, Germany. The company said it has already completed a feasibility study to build the facility but has not confirmed the exact location.
Founded in 2002, Farasis employs more than 3,000 worldwide. The company has two production bases in Ganzhou and Zhenjiang in China. Farasis said that since 2017 it has “regularly ranked first in terms of shipments of NCM based lithium-ion pouch cells to the Chinese automotive market”.
Last year, Farasis subsidiary Funeng Technology (Ganzhou) and Chinese carmaker BAIC Group agreed to invest a total of CNY10 billion ($1.2bn) to launch a batteries plant for new energy vehicles in Shunyi, Beijing.
