InoBat to build battery gigafactory in western Europe

The Slovakian battery company InoBat Auto wants to build its third gigafactory for electric car batteries in Western Europe. A decision on the specific location is to be made this year. The company is also recruiting its board of directors.

According to the company, the planned factory will be located in the EU and the UK. The company believes that one of the reasons why the announced project is possible is the “successful validation of the performance of InoBat’s customised 622 and 811 battery cells”. This development, it says, has led to a sufficient purchase forecast “to acquire the first 4 GWh module of the 32 GWh project”.

With the announcement on the future factory, InoBat also announced that it had restructured its board, another measure to enable the announced project, InoBat said. The chairman is now Andy Palmer. InoBat had hired the former CEO of Aston Martin and COO of Nissan as “non-executive vice chairman” in 2020. Palmer now replaces Faysal Sohail, who previously held the chairman role and who will continue to be actively involved in the company’s development as chairman of the advisory board. Tara Lindstedt, Vazil Hudak and Kathryn Baker have also been appointed to the board.

“I’m delighted to announce our intention to start deployment of our gigafactories in Western Europe, which has been made possible by our innovative and hard-working team who have proven that our approach of designing electric batteries tailored to specific customer missions is a resounding success,” says Marian Bocek, co-founder and CEO of InoBat Auto. “Our new structure and Board will fast track the implementation of our ambitious platform for growth.”

InoBat Auto’s goal is to provide customers with customised battery cells for their intended use – using high-throughput screening (a method derived from pharmaceutical research) and artificial intelligence, the company aims to find the right cell chemistry for each individual application. The Slovakians have customers from the passenger car, commercial vehicle, motorsports and aerospace sectors in mind as potential customers.

The Slovakian company is planning a 100 MWh pilot production facility in Voderady and a 10 GWh factory from 2024. Some of the manufacturing equipment will be supplied by Manz. Most recently, Ideanomics, an eMobility company based in New York, had become an investor. The investment of an unspecified amount is intended to support the completion of the R&D centre and the pilot battery plant by the end of 2022. Other investors include Rio Tinto, Amara Raja and the World Bank’s private arm, the IFC.

Meanwhile, InoBatt has announced a collaboration with Gigamine, a technology-driven battery recycling company. Together, they aim to create a state-of-the-art process and supporting infrastructure for the cost-effective collection, processing and reuse of battery manufacturing materials and end-of-life batteries.

Recycling and the active reprocessing of materials to minimise waste and maximise the circular economy are key factors in the choice of location for the aforementioned planned Gigafactory, according to InoBat.

inobatauto.eu (gigafactory), inobatauto.eu (Gigamine)