Impact Clean Power Technology builds plant in Poland

Impact Clean Power Technology (ICPT), a Polish manufacturer of battery systems for heavy-duty commercial vehicles such as buses as well as stationary energy storage systems, has begun construction of a production facility called GigafactoryX. The plant will initially produce 2 GWh of batteries per year from 2024 and 5 GWh in the final stage.

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According to the ICPT, its new plant will become one of the largest manufacturers of battery systems for transport in Europe. The company has not yet revealed exactly where it will be built.

The new production lines will be highly automated and the process itself will be powered by a photovoltaic system. This in turn will be stabilised by energy storage consisting of second life battery systems from used public transport vehicle batteries, in addition to which, the company says that half of the raw materials used for production will come from recycling. This covers several parts of closed loop battery life – certainly the provision of renewable energy, the reuse of batteries in stationary applications after their initial use in vehicles finally followed by recycling of the batteries to create new ones.

The new battery systems produced in the future GigafactoryX will be used in public transport, the railway sector, stationary energy storage as well as in the professional energy sector and for private users. The company’s battery systems are based on lithium-ion cells with LTO, LFP and NMC chemistry. According to Green Car Congress, in 2021, the battery supplier held about 15% of the electric bus battery market in Europe.

ICPT has three main product lines: High-performance battery systems for transportation and industry; stationary energy storage for the renewable energy market, professional energy sector and industry; and the development of hydrogen fuel cell systems. ICPT currently supplies, among others, the Polish bus manufacturer Solaris. In 2021, ICPT , TAURON Polska Energia, and the Polish electric bus manufacturer Solaris began exploring the second life use of lithium-ion cells as energy storage devices in stationary applications. Impact also plans to introduce batteries based on a solid electrolyte and to enter the production of fuel cells.

“We want to further develop the company in the area of new products, as well as diversify our activities and increase production capacity,” explains says Bartek Kras, CEO and co-founder of Impact Clean Power Technology.

In terms of its future suppliers, the battery Polish battery producer says that although the company currently produces sets based on Asian battery cells, with its new factory the company wants to base production on short supply chains, leading from European companies.

Update 21 February 2023

ICPT has contracted Teamtechnik to build an automated assembly line for the production of batteries for buses, trams and trains at its production facility in Poland, which is currently under construction. As part of the project, the Polish offshoot of the engineering company called Teamtechnik Production Technology will build a production line for battery systems for electric buses, among others, in three variants that will be suitable for further expansion. Assembly work is scheduled to begin in July 2023.

greencarcongress.com, elektromocni.pl (in Polish), icpt.pl (update)