BYD builds another battery factory in China
BYD has started construction of another electric car battery plant in China. The new blade battery production facility is being built in Xuzhou in Jiangsu province and is scheduled to start production in December 2023.
The plant will be built in two phases with a total investment of 10 billion yuan (1.4 billion euros) and will be designed for 15 GWh of annual capacity in its first phase. The foundation stone was laid on 4 January 2023, according to the local government’s WeChat account.
Exactly half of the total budget is to be invested in the first phase, which amounts to around five billion yuan. It is not yet clear with which capacity the first production lines are to go into operation in December 2023 or when phase 1 is to reach the announced 15 GWh.
The blade battery is an LFP cell with a special form factor in that the cells are very long, which makes them resemble the blade of a sword. The blade battery is a cell-to-pack technology, meaning that the cells are built directly into the battery pack and not first grouped into individual modules. This allows the energy density to be increased at the pack level.
Another new BYD battery factory in China is being built in Wenzhou in Zhejiang province with an annual capacity of 20 GWh and a planned production start in 2024.
As the website CN EV Post states with reference to company data, BYD had a production capacity of 89.835 GWh at the turn of the year. This marks more than double what it was at the end of 2021, at 37.921 GWh. More than eleven GWh of production capacity was added in November and December of 2022.
