LG Chem has started construction of an electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Warsaw, Poland. LG Chem will build an EV battery plant inside the LG cluster located in Kobierzyce Commune near Wroclaw in southwestern Poland. The plant has a size of 41,300 square meters and aims to start production in the 2nd half of 2017.
LG Chem will invest approximately 400 billion KRW (about $360 million) in the plant, which will be the company’s largest, by the end of 2018. When the investment is complete, the plant will have the production capacity that can provide more than 100,000 batteries per year for pure high-performance EVs that can run up to 320 km once charged. The plant is the first large-scale lithium-ion battery plant for automotive application in Europe.
“We will turn the Poland EV battery plant into a mecca of battery production for electric vehicles around the world,†said UB Lee, the President of Energy Solution Company, LG Chem. He added, “As LG Chem's Poland EV battery plant is the first large-scale automotive lithium battery production plant in Europe, it will play the role of vitalizing the electric vehicle industry across the whole Europe. We will put all our efforts into making the plant into a main production hub for EV batteries.â€
To respond to the requests of local customers quickly, the company will build a fully integrated production system that produces all battery components from electrodes to cells, modules, and packs for the first time in Europe.
By building an EV battery plant in Poland, LG Chem can reduce logistics cost, supply products to carmakers in a timely manner, and enhance strategic partnership with local clients.
Once the Poland plant is built, LG Chem will have established a global production system of four internationally located plants, which are the largest in the industry. The production system will be composed of the Ochang plant in South Korea, Holland plant in the United States, Nanjing plant in China, and Wroclaw plant in Poland, securing the production capacity of more than 280,000 batteries for pure high-performance EVs.
LG Chem is the only company in the world that has established production plants in the United States, China, and Europe, which occupy about 90% of the global pure EV market, establishing a foothold to become a global market leader.
The plants in the United States, China, and Poland will supply products to the local market while the Ochang plant in South Korea will supply products to Korean automobile manufacturers and at the same time controlling the overall supply need by global customers.
