Eve Energy & Absolute Energy to build battery plant in Thailand
Chinese battery cell manufacturer Eve Energy is planning a joint venture to build a factory in Thailand with an annual capacity of at least 6 gigawatt-hours. The joint venture for this is to be established together with the Thai energy company Energy Absolute.
Energy Absolute is to hold 51 per cent of the joint venture and Eve Energy 49 per cent. Profits from the joint venture will go equally to both companies despite Absolute Energy’s (small) majority.
Absolute Energy is Thailand’s second-biggest provider of electricity and unveiled its first electric car in 2019. The company has been planning battery plants in Thailand since at least 2018. For its part, the Chinese battery heavy-weight Eve Energy says the memorandum of understanding will help facilitate its overseas business advancement to support the needs of customers in Thailand and Southeast Asia.
While cooperation between the Thai and Chinese companies is still a declaration of intent and not a binding investment decision, it has already been approved by the relevant authorities. The Thai government is proactively working to implement electric transport across the country and build an eMobility supply chain.
Several EV manufacturers have recently started planning, building and operating plants in the country, including Great Wall, Changan, Neta, Foxconn, BYD and Aiways with both EV and battery production, while immediate supply chains are appearing with battery makers Svolt and Gotion High Tech setting up operations in the South East Asian country, along with German testing and certification service provider TÜV SÜD and battery recycling operations from ACE Green Recycling.
Thailand is the world’s fifth-largest producer of rare earths, important in electric motors. The amount of rare earths mined in Thailand has doubled since 2020.
Eve Energy is also planning to build its first European factory in Debrecen, Hungary, to supply BMW with large round cells for New Class electric cars. Production in Hungary is expected to start in 2026 and later reach an annual capacity of 28 GWh. Eve Energy is invested in Israeli battery developer StoreDot and benefits from its technology.
According to South Korean market research institute SNE Research, Eve Energy currently has 5.1 GWh of installed production capacity and a global market share of 2.2 per cent – putting it on a par with VW’s Gotion High-tech holding and slightly behind Samsung SDI at 4.2 per cent.
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