Chinese battery maker Gotion High Tech Co. intends to produce batteries for electric vehicles in Europe with its Slovakian peer InoBat to supply European EV makers.
Under the memorandum of understanding signed on Feb. 5, the two firms will establish a joint venture, able to produce up to 40 gigawatt-hours of battery cells and packs a year, Gotion said.
One site under consideration for the joint venture is in the Central and Eastern Europe region, Gotion added, without specifying the site’s location.
The two companies are also looking to build energy storage systems at InoBat’s existing premises in Slovakia, according to Gotion.
Gotion is based in the east China city of Hefei and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The Volkswagen Group owns 26 percent. Under a deal it signed with VW Group in 2021, Gotion said it will produce battery cells for VW in China and Germany.
In 2021, Gotion disclosed that its U.S. subsidiary signed a strategic cooperation deal with “a large U.S.-listed auto manufacturer” on the supply of lithium iron phosphate batteries.
The batteries would be supplied to the automaker via exports from China and a plant to be constructed in the U.S., it said. To date, the company hasn’t divulged any information on progress in carrying out the deal.
In 2022, Gotion shipped 14.1 GWh of batteries globally, a jump of 112 percent from a year earlier, according to SNE Research, a Korean consultancy.
