What is the scale of Vingroup’s 4,000 billion battery factory with the ‘super factories’ of the world’s giants?

On December 12, Vingroup and the People’s Committee of Ha Tinh province kicked off the VinES battery factory in Vung Ang economic zone (Ha Tinh). According to the announcement of Vingroup, this factory will supply lithium batteries for electric cars and electric buses of VinFast. In the first phase, this factory has a scale of 8 hectares with a capacity of 100,000 battery packs/year . Investment capital is more than 4,000 billion VND (175 million USD) . In phase 2, the factory will be expanded to increase capacity to 1 million battery packs/year.

In 2020-2021, most of the big companies have announced plans to build a series of battery factories with an estimated investment of billions of USD. Here are some outstanding projects

Tesla’s $ 7 billion Gigafactory in Berlin

This is considered the largest project in the world on the automotive market today. This Gigafactory project is detailed by Elon Musk by the end of 2020 with an initial capacity of 100 GWh per year, then it can be increased to 200 or 250. For comparison, the entire world battery production in in 2019 only reached 160 GWh.

Elon Musk said this factory is also where Tesla produces electric cars for the European market, which is expected to produce about 500,000 Models and Model Ys per year.

This factory should have been in operation since July 2021, but due to some environmental issues, the company had to delay the opening time.

Volkswagen’s plan to build 6 “super factories”

As one of the two largest car manufacturers in the world, Volkswagen’s ambition is certainly not small. This is also one of the traditional car companies that proved to be the fastest in the race in the electric car market.

Volkswagen did not disclose specific investment amounts, but earlier this year, Volkswagen announced that it wanted to open a total of six electric vehicle battery factories in Europe by 2030 to “ensure supply security” for the company.

When completed and put into operation, the plants can produce 240 GWh of batteries per year , which is equivalent to the highest level of the Gigafactory from Tesla.

The company’s first two factories will be located in Skellefte (Sweden) and Salzgitter (Germany). The company’s goal is to bring the average battery cost below 100 euros ($120) per kilowatt-hour, making it affordable to produce electric cars.

Nissan built a factory of 1.8 billion USD

In mid-2021, Nissan announced a partnership with battery manufacturer Envision AESC to build battery plants for electric vehicles in Japan and the UK. Nissan plans to invest in this project $ 1.82 billion, starting to produce batteries in 2024 – the same time as VinFast’s factory. Nissan’s goal is to deliver around 700,000 battery packs per year.

These plants will be operated by Envision AESC, the world’s seventh largest supplier of electric vehicle batteries. Nissan also cooperates with some of the top battery suppliers, including China’s CATL and South Korea’s LG Chem.

In addition to the battery factory, Nissan also announced a plan called “Nissan Ambition 2030” with an investment of $17.6 billion over the next five years to boost electric vehicle sales. The company expects to launch 23 new electric vehicle models, including 15 all-electric models.

Toyota builds a $1.3 billion electric vehicle battery factory in the US

It is said to be slow in electrification plans, but Toyota has also drawn a full roadmap for its future models.

Just this December, Toyota said it would build a $1.29 billion battery plant in North Carolina (USA) in an effort to bring some of its electric vehicle supply chain to the US. It is expected that the production process at the factory will not come into operation until 2025, with an expected capacity of 1.2 million battery packs/year . The company’s first electric SUV, the BZ4X, will also launch in mid-2022.

Hyundai builds $1.1 billion battery factory

In August 2021, Hyundai and LG Energy Solution announced to build a battery factory in Indonesia with an investment of 1.1 billion USD. Indonesia was chosen because it is the world’s largest producer of nickel – an important raw material for battery production.

The plant is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023, while battery production will begin in 2024. The plant’s annual capacity is about 10 GWh, equivalent to 150,000 electric car battery packs .

In May 2021, Hyundai also announced a plan to invest $7.4 billion in the development and production of electric cars in the US from 2025.