Chinese private capital firm GSR Capital is ramping up its ambitions to become a key player in European EV battery production with plans for a manufacturing plant in Sweden.
GSR is to build the battery facility at Trollhättan, 75km north of Gothenburg, on land adjacent to Swedish electric vehicle producer NEVS— in which GSR will also invest $500 million.
The partners have yet to announce details of the technology or production capacities for the site.
But the deal opens up a European front in the battle for future EV battery sales that is heating up between the EU and Asia.
NEVS said EV batteries produced at the site “will be aimed for NEVS vehicles but also for other actors in Sweden”.
Sweden has been designated as a key player in the EU’s ‘batteries alliance’— through which Europe aims to push back on Asia’s dominance in the battery sector. The European Investment Bank has already agreed to finance construction of a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant at Västerås to be built by Northvolt.
Swedish prime minister Stefan Löfven attended the GSR-NEVS signing ceremony, on 14 March, which came just weeks after GSR inked a separate deal to build a 25GW capacity EV battery manufacturing plant in Turkey.
NEVS president and CEO Stefan Tilk said GSR was a “good long-term partner”. “GSR will not only give us a financial injection, the company is also very much involved in electric vehicles and the business around EVs, which makes this match even better.”
Tilk said GSR’s investments “will be made as a convertible loan that might be converted to shares” in NEVS, which was founded in 2012 and acquired the main assets of the Saab Automobile bankruptcy estates.
Last year, GSR led Chinese investors in a takeover of Nissan’s battery business.