Slovakia's InoBat eyes electric vehicle battery plant in Serbia

Lilium NV

14/11/2022 07:00

By Nick Carey
       LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Slovakian battery maker
InoBat said on Monday it has signed declarations of intent with
the Serbian government to build an electric vehicle (EV) battery
factory in the Balkan country with a capacity of up to 32
gigawatt hours (GWh).
    The plant would open with an initial capacity of 4 GWh in
2025.
    The Serbian government has agreed to provide funding of up
to 419 million euros ($431 million) including grants and tax
incentives to support the project, InoBat said. 
    Although the agreement is not final, a source familiar with
the matter said it is close to being so.
    InoBat has said it wants to build a gigafactory in western
Europe and one in eastern Europe. 
    Last month InoBat said it had signed a declaration of intent
with Spain's government to build a gigafactory in Valladolid.
The declaration is not a finalised agreement and other
locations, including the United Kingdom, remain under
consideration for InoBat's western European factory.
    Some European battery startups have struggled to raise
billions for huge gigafactories, while others like InoBat are
focused on expanding slowly as they land customers contracts.
    InoBat will open a 45 megawatt-hour (MWh) pilot line in
Bratislava early next year to produce high-performance batteries
for customers to test and says it has signed customer
agreements, including with German air taxi developer Lilium
 LILM.O  worth 500 million euros by 2030.
    The company aims to build battery production capacity in 4
GWh increments starting in 2025 - costing around 350 million
euros each - as contracts are signed.
    InoBat also plans a research & development facility in
Indiana, which could expand into a gigafactory, in a joint
venture with fintech company Ideanomics  IDEX.O . 
    Ideanomics is an investor in InoBat, as are mining group Rio
Tinto  RIO.L  and Czech utility CEZ  CEZP.PR . 
($1 = 0.9719 euros)
 (Reporting By Nick Carey; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
 ((nick.carey@thomsonreuters.com; +44 7385 414 954;))