Korea’s largest manufacturer of high-end batteries, LG Chem, recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of its new EV-battery manufacturing plant in Nanjing, China.
The plant is being constructed in China in order to help meet the growing needs of the exploding Chinese market. Once completed, the Nanjing battery plant will possess an annual production capacity of over 100,000 EV battery units a year.
Tentative agreements are already in place for the plant to supply batteries to prominent Chinese automakers like SAIC Motor Corp and Qoros.
Among those present at the recent groundbreaking ceremony — and showing the importance of the plant to the local industry/community — were the Mayor of Nanjing, Miao Rui Lin; the vice mayor, Luo Qun; and the President of the Energy Solution Company at LG Chem, YS Kwon.
The development of the battery is the result of a joint venture set up in August between LG Chem and a pair of Chinese state-run companies — the Nanjing Zijin Technology Incubation Special Park Construction Development Co, and the Nanjing New Industrial Investment Group. LG Chem currently owns roughly half of the joint venture — with the other half (or so) owned by the two state-run Chinese partners.
Reportedly, LG Chem is investing several hundred million dollars worth of financing into the development of the factory. With the expectation being that the battery plant will generate around 1 trillion won in revenue by the year 2020.
Interesting to see China looking to Korea for further development in the country. With the future of China’s EV market being something of a mystery — will it explode in the coming years? muddle along? slowly grow? — foreign investment could potentially be something that tips the scales in the direction of an explosion.
Much, obviously, depends upon the government’s actions though — if the leadership of China wanted to, it could make substantial changes more or less anytime that it wanted to. The effects of said changes could of course be hard to predict though.
Related: Top EV Battery Manufacturers (Sales Report)
Image Credit: LG Chem
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