Large-scale battery manufacturing offers several benefits. In comparison with a small-scale facility, so-called giga factories that use dirty electricity can reduce the climate footprint of production by 45 percent. That was one of the conclusions of a study conducted by Chalmers.

Elon Musk coined the term with Tesla’s Gigafactory 1, the company’s combined component and battery factory in Nevada. The contractor has previously stated that one day it will take several dozen gigabytes around the world that produce battery cells, when the electric cars make up a significant volume – and that day is around the corner.

Because if you only look at our own home ground, Bil Sweden has predicted that six out of ten newly registered cars in Sweden in 2022 will be rechargeable, where 34 percent are pure electric cars. Behind the forecast is, among other things, the fact that many new, electrified models will be rolled out during the year.

A global battery boom

Fortunately, there is a global battery boom, and by the middle of 2021, 38 gigabytes were planned for Europe – even though less than half of the projects had then received their funding. The environmental organization Transport and Environment has made a forecast for the development, and if all 38 projects go into production, they can by 2025 deliver battery cells corresponding to up to 462 GWh. That would give Europe 20 percent of the market and place us second after China. It reports Clean Technica.

The analysis firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Europe forecast, on the other hand, is more conservative and lands at 360 GWh for 2025, corresponding to 12 percent of their forecasted total global production capacity in the same year.

In addition to Tesla’s capacity, US large-scale battery production has been modest – but according to the Department of Energy’s forecast, the nation will have 13 new gigabytes producing battery cells by 2025. It reports Electrek.

Volkswagen and Toyota are waiting behind the scenes

In 2022, General Motors will start a plant in Lordstown, Ohio together with LG Chem – and SK Innovation will open a factory outside Atlanta, Georgia. But behind the scenes, Volkswagen and Toyota are waiting with each factory, Ford with three, and Stellantis with two – as they drive with LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI respectively. In addition, GM will have three more facilities, and SK Innovation another.

According to Inside EVs calculation, the new plants in the USA by 2025 should supply battery cells corresponding to more than 300 GWh. But then the gigafactory that Tesla builds in Texas is not included, and with a possible capacity over 100 GWh, Gigafactory 5 in Austin can become the largest factory for battery cells in the world.