Europe’s first battery materials gigafactory is up and runnning
Umicore has officially inaugurated its production facility for cathode active materials for electric vehicles in Nysa, Poland – making Umicore the first company in Europe with a complete circular and sustainable battery materials value chain.
The gigafactory will now supply battery materials to Umicore’s car and battery cell customers in Europe.
“We’re very proud to open Europe's very first gigafactory for cathode active materials. Umicore's carbon neutral facility here in Nysa is a true enabler and accelerator of the e-mobility transformation across the European Union,” says Mathias Miedreich, CEO of Umicore, in a press release.
The CEO continues to say that the new gigafactory complements the company's metals refining and cathode precursor production facility in Finland as well as its R&D and battery recycling activities in Belgium.
Nysa’s annual production capacity is set to reach 20 GWh by the end of 2023 – moving on to 40 GWh a year later. However, the company says that the gigafactory has the potential to increase annual production to over 200 GWh, or 3 million electric vehicles, in the second half of the decade.
This growth trajectory is part of Umicore’s ambition to reach worldwide capacity of more than 400 GWh by 2030, and overall strategy to establish fully integrated regional battery material value chains on three continents.
Currently, Umicore in Nysa employs about 240 people. Their number is expected to increase to 400 by the end of 2023, along with the plant's future capacity expansion.
