Belgian company to build EUR 1.4 billion car battery factory in east Romania

Avesta Battery and Energy Engineering (ABEE) from Belgium agreed to build an electric car battery cell factory in Galaţi. The investment is valued at EUR 1.4 billion.

The Romvolt battery factory in Galați in east Romania will employ 8.000 people, Mayor Ionuţ Pucheanu said. The facility worth EUR 1.4 billion will make cells for electric car batteries, the local administration revealed, as reported by domestic media outlets.

The delegation signed Romania’s largest deal in the sector with Avesta Battery and Energy Engineering (ABEE) during a visit to Belgium. The Diegem-based company plans a production capacity of 22 GWh per year. Romvolt will supply batteries mainly for the automotive industry – Renault-Dacia and Ford, but also for the stationary storage market, it revealed.

Recycling facility to follow

The factory is envisaged to be built in the Galați Free Trade Zone in the territory of the city on the Danube, on 60 hectares. Mayor Pucheanu pointed out that the local authority “had to fulfill several requests” to close the deal for Romvolt.

Prime Minister of Belgium Alexander De Croo and Romania’s Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Ștefan Radu Oprea.

ABEE said it intends to complete the project’s first phase of the investment in 2026. Another EUR 200 million investment is planned by the end of the decade, in a recycling facility for electric equipment and batteries, it added. The capacity would be 50,000 tons per year.

Battery storage industry taking hold in Southeastern Europe

Of note, ABEE signed an agreement a month ago on an investment in the production of battery management systems in North Macedonia.

Earlier, EIT InnoEnergy became a shareholder in Prime Batteries Technology from Romania, which intends to invest EUR 1 billion by 2026 to scale up its battery production. German automotive parts company Dräxlmaier said last year it would open a plant for the production of batteries for electric vehicles in the western Romanian city of Timișoara.

Last month, Solar MD launched the first phase of production in its LiFePO4 Energy Storage manufacturing facility in Rousse, Bulgaria.

Elsewhere in the region tracked by Balkan Green Energy News, battery storage startup ElevenEs said last week that its manufacturing facility in neighboring Serbia is fully operational. In Turkey, TOGG and Chinese battery manufacturer Farasis are building a plant for batteries for the electric car manufacturer’s T10X model.