LG in Poland is to produce e-batteries for German car giant Volkswagen.
The Chem factory in Kobierzyce (Biskupice Podgórne), which is still under construction, will produce around 100,000 battery cells a year.
LG-Chem Vice President Chang-Beom Kang told German magazine Manager Magazin: “Poland is the most competitive production location to supply European and international manufacturers.”
The factory, which is due to be completed at the end of this year, will the first larger facility for lithium-ion batteries on the European continent after Daimler had to stop cell production in Saxony.
Raw materials such as lithium will initially be imported from Asia, but there are plans for Polish companies to take over these supplies in the future.
The Korean company is investing 1.3 billion Euros which means that the project has grown considerably – only last year there were talks of a three-digit million sum. The factory will give jobs to approximately 2,500 people, including at least 400 engineers.
LG intends to establish cooperation with technical universities in Poland, especially with Wroclaw University of Technology.
Germany also wants to develop cooperation with Poland in the field of electromobility.
On September 5th, 2018 German Minister of Economy, Peter Altmaier, visited Polish capital and held talks with Jadwiga Emilewicz, Minister of Entrepreneurship and Technology, Jerzy Kwieciński Minister of Investment and Economic Development and Marek Zagórski, the Minister of Digital Affairs.
Emilewicz told the Polish Press Agency PAP: “We talked about entering into close, working level cooperation between Polish and German companies involved in battery development.”
She added that Poland and Germany participate in the European initiative of the European Battery Alliance and that this could be the basis for establishing a new large European company, like Airbus, which will produce modern batteries and accumulators to be used in ecological transportation.
Peter Altmaier, the head of the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy concluded after the meeting with the Polish authorities that the Polish-German business cooperation presents “a solid growth rate”.