Eve Energy will build a project for large cylindrical batteries for passenger cars in Hungary over a four-year construction period.
(Image credit: Eve Energy)
Chinese lithium battery maker Eve Energy plans to invest more than $1 billion in a battery plant in Hungary to expand its presence in overseas markets.
Eve Energy's board of directors has given its subsidiary EVE Power Hungary Kft the go-ahead to build a large cylindrical battery project for passenger cars in Hungary, with an investment amount not exceeding RMB 9.97 billion ($1.4 billion).
The project is located in Debrecen, Hungary, and the construction period is four years, according to an announcement yesterday by the Shenzhen-listed company.
The project will help improve the company's global industrial layout and promote the smooth progress of its overseas business, the announcement said.
It will also facilitate the company's rapid response to local demand for new energy vehicle (NEV) power batteries from key customers in Hungary and take on more orders from customers in Europe, Eve Energy said.
EVE Power Hungary signed an agreement on May 9 with Debreceni, a subsidiary of Hungary's Debrecen government, to purchase land owned by the latter in the city's northwest industrial zone for the production of cylindrical power batteries, according to a Shenzhen Stock Exchange announcement at the time.
The land has an area of 45 hectares and the purchase price is 22.5 euros per square meter plus VAT, for a total price of about 12.86 million euros, according to the announcement.
The deal will meet the company's need for production land for future growth and further scale up its production capacity for power and energy storage batteries, Eve Energy said.
Eve Energy's announcement provided no further information, though the move appears to be in preparation for supplying BMW.
On September 9, 2022, Eve Energy announced that it had finalized a battery supply relationship with BMW Group to supply large cylindrical lithium-ion cells for the latter's Neue Klasse line of models.
BMW also said at the time in a post on its official WeChat account that it had awarded contracts worth more than 10 billion euros to CATL and Eve Energy to meet the demand for cells for the new generation of models.
The two partners will each build two battery plants in China and Europe, each with an annual capacity of 20 GWh, BMW said at the time, adding that it will also look for partners to build two more battery plants in the North American Free Trade Area.
Eve Energy is one of China's largest battery makers, with 1.33 GWh of batteries installed in May, ranking fourth with a 4.71 percent share, according to the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance (CABIA) earlier today.
($1 = RMB 7.1227)
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