Valmet Automotive spins off battery business

Finnish supplier and contract manufacturer Valmet Automotive wants to split off its battery business for electric vehicles. The EV Systems (EVS) division will be set up as an independent company with its own management and governance. (UPDATE BELOW)

Roberts Abele, who comes from the German supplier Vitesco Technologies, has been appointed CEO of the new company. Abele was most recently Senior Vice President and General Manager Global Powertrain Systems in the US. According to Valmet, Abele has over 30 years of experience at leading global automotive suppliers and will relocate to Finland. Ville Jaakonsalo, who joins from Patria, an international defence and technology company, will become CFO.

“We are truly excited to welcome Roberts and Ville to steer our battery business,” says Jarkko Sairanen, Chair of Valmet Automotive Board of Directors. “Both are highly seasoned leaders who will be bringing insight, experience, and execution capability to our current and future activities that will take EVS into sustained success.”

The brand name under which the previously named EVS division will operate in the market will be announced in September. For now, Valmet Automotive will remain this company’s sole owner and shareholder. “With our renewed strategy, our battery business is geared to take the next step: grow beyond automotive industry and expand its scope into trucks, buses, and several non-automotive off-highway segments such as materials handling, forestry, construction, mining, and agriculture equipment,” says Sairanen

Valmet Automotive’s battery business has grown rapidly since its launch in 2019. In 2023, the EVS business area achieved gross sales of more than 1.2 billion euros, net sales of over 200 million euros and employed 1,400 people at seven locations in Finland and Germany. The German sites are a battery factory in Kirchardt near Heilbronn, which opened in February 2023, and a battery test centre opened in Bad Friedrichshall (also near Heilbronn) that has been in operation since 2020. The battery test centre is currently being expanded.

Update 10 September 2024

Valmet Automotive has completed the announced process of financial and operational independence of its battery business, which now operates as an independent company under the name IONCOR. The CEO is Roberts Abele. Ville Jaakonsalo will take up his position as CFO in November.

valmet-automotive.com, valmet-automotive.com (update)