MILAN -- Electric vehicle battery startup Italvolt said it plans to invest 4 billion euros ($4.9 billion) to build a factory in Italy to meet growing demand for lithium ion batteries from Europe's automotive industry.
The European Union is pushing to boost battery production on the continent to compete with China, currently home to around 80 percent of the world's lithium ion cell manufacturing capacity, with the aim of being self-sufficient by 2025.
Italvolt said in a statement on Monday that the facility is expected to employ 4,000 people, and that the first stage of the project will be completed in 2024.
It did not give details of how it will finance the project, or when it plans to start production.
The company said that Stellantis' robotics unit Comau would be a supplier for the Italian facility.
Italvolt's sister start-up Britishvolt has said it plans to build a 2.6 billion pound ($3.6 billion) battery factory in England.
Italvolt's founder and CEO is Swedish entrepreneur Lars Carlstrom, who was one of the founders of Britishvolt.
Carlstrom stepped down from Britishvolt in December after the British media reported that he was convicted of a minor tax fraud in Sweden in the 1990s.
Andrea Malan of Automotive News Europe contributed to this report
