Electronics Production | August 17, 2021

Akasol opens European factory for commercial-vehicle battery systems

Akasol AG has opened its Gigafactory 1; a factory to produce commercial-vehicle battery systems. The facility has a production capacity of up to 1 GWh in the first phase of its expansion and will gradually expand to 2.5 GWh by late 2022.

In the first expansion phase, the new Akasol Gigafactory 1 will produce Li-ion battery systems for commercial vehicles on highly automated and fully networked production lines with an annual production capacity of 1 GWh. The commissioning of further production lines will boost production capacity to up to 2.5 GWh in the coming year. Depending on customer requirements, this can be expanded to up to 5 GWh, a press release states. This makes the new Akasol Gigafactory 1 one of the largest production location for Li-ion battery systems with commercial-vehicle applications in Europe. Once it is operating at full capacity, the facility will be able to produce battery systems for more than 10,000 commercial vehicles each year. The company is investing more than 100 million euros in this location. The AKASOL campus spans more than 20,000 square metres in the southwest of Darmstadt (Germany). The 15,000-square-metre two-level production, assembly and logistics hall is also home to a test and validation centre for the testing of cells, modules and systems. The new offices in the 7,500-square-metre headquarters adjacent to the production hall offer a working environment for the more than 300 employees in research and development, sales, product and project management, purchasing and administration.

Official dedication of Gigafactory 1 with the ribbon-cutting ceremony by Andreas Feicht, Jochen Partsch, Tarek Al-Wazir, Frédéric Lissalde, Sven Schulz, Brady Ericson, Carsten Bovenschen, Klaus-Dieter Nagel (from l. to r.)