Stellantis has reached a supply agreement for electric vehicle batteries and other components with Svolt Energy Technology, a Chinese company that is building a gigafactory in Germany’s Saarland region.
Starting in 2025, Svolt will supply lithium-ion batteries, high-voltage storage systems and battery management systems to Stellantis, the battery maker said Monday in a news release. Stellantis and other automakers are rushing to secure a diversified battery supply base ahead of an expected mass switchover to EVs by 2030.
Svolt, a spinoff of Great Wall Motors, is investing up to 2 billion euros ($2.37 billion) in Germany to create a European manufacturing hub.
Svolt's first cell factory will have the capacity to make as much as 24 gigawatt-hours of batteries to power between 300,000 and 500,000 electric cars annually, the company said last autumn. It is also building an assembly plant for battery packs.
Production is slated to start at the end of 2023 at the site near Saarlouis, along Germany’s border with France. The site will employ 2,000 people. Svolt has said it is seeking other partners, potentially including Ford Motor, which has an assembly plant in Saarlouis.