LG Chem (Seoul / South Korea; www.lgchem.com) is building a production plant for batteries used in electric vehicles in Poland. The plant, located near Wrocław, is expected to start up in 2019. The company plans to invest more than PLN 1.3 bn (EUR 304m) in the facility by the end of 2018 and the plant will have the capacity to produce about 100,000 batteries per year, said the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ; www.paiz.gov.pl) in a statement. The batteries will power electric vehicles able to run for 320 km on a single charge.

"We will turn the Poland battery plant into a mecca of battery production for EVs around the world," Lee Ung-Beom, president of LG Chem's energy systems division, said at the groundbreaking ceremony on 5 October. Poland’s deputy prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the investment will help develop electromobility in Poland. Also attending the ceremony were board members of automotive companies including Audi, BMW, Daimler, Jaguar, Land Rover, Porsche, Renault and Volkswagen.

The project is expected to lead to the creation of 700 new jobs and will be Europe’s first large-scale lithium-ion battery production plant, PAIiIZ said. Production will include all components, including cells, modules and packs.

LG Chem already produces electric vehicle batteries in Ochang / South Korea, Holland / USA and Nanjing / China, with a total production capacity across the three sites of more than 280,000 batteries per year.