Polish energy companies are set to pool their resources and build an electric vehicles factory, as Warsaw targets 1 million EVs on the road by 2025.
A joint venture set up by Poland’s state-owned energy companies will foot most of the bill for the project, with the ultimate aim of developing a home-grown electric vehicle.
A spokesperson for Electromobility Poland, the company behind the project, said that the as-to-be-yet-unveiled car will be “tailored to the needs of Polish customers in terms of price, accessories and parameters, but also attractive for European customers”.
The spokesperson added that Poland is “the largest internal market in Europe without its own national brand. Therefore our main aim is to create a producer which will operate on the automotive market and sell EVs under its own brand name.”
Given the early stage of the factory project though, Electromobility Poland was unable to comment on the exact location or budget. However, industry sources suggest that the project will cost around €1 billion.
Clean vehicles expert Julia Poliscanova told EURACTIV that the announcement is “great news” but warned that EV manufacturing is “highly energy intensive so more effort needs to be put into decarbonising electricity grids”.
The power behind Polish plugs is indeed an issue as the Eastern European country still relies heavily on coal, although it has recently made steps to clean up its energy and is making inroads into renewable energy generation.
If the EV factory sees the light of day, it will add to Poland’s already impressive e-mobility aspirations. The country is home to one of the biggest battery plants in Europe and there are even award-winning electric bus companies firmly established too.
Its strategy is paying off too, as German car giant Mercedes announced in January that it will open its own battery plant in Poland, adding to its global production network. Parent-company Daimler plans to debut 10 full-electric cars by 2022.