Geely to Invest Almost $5 Billion in New China EV Battery Plant

(Bloomberg) — Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. is doubling down on electric vehicles, investing almost $5 billion to build a new battery plant in the nation’s south.

Geely unit Geely Technology Group Co. signed an agreement with local authorities to pour 30 billion yuan ($4.6 billion) into construction of a factory in the city of Ganzhou in Jiangxi province, according to a statement posted Monday on the company’s official WeChat account. The plant will have an annual capacity of 42 gigawatt-hours.

Carmakers and battery producers are increasing investments in the component that accounts for around 30% of an EV’s total cost. With annual sales of new-energy vehicles in China expected to more than quadruple to 6 million units by 2025, demand for batteries is expected to soar.

Over the past few months, Geely has been pushing further into EVs, forging major collaboration pacts with companies from search-engine heavyweight Baidu Inc. to Apple Inc.’s Taiwanese manufacturing partner Foxconn Technology Group and Tencent Holdings Ltd.

Geely is China’s No. 1 maker of local branded cars. It sold 68,142 new-energy vehicles last year, about 5% of total deliveries.

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