Oceanpine investee company—Chinese electric vehicle battery maker Svolt has raised RMB 6 billion ($942 million) in its Series B+. Investors include state-owned Sichuan Energy Investment Group and private equity firm CDH Investments, according to a Dec. 11 announcement. The battery cell manufacturer plans to invest the fresh capital mainly in the development of new technologies and the construction of new production facilities and R&D centres. This is already the third financing round this year.
According to SVOLT, investors such as Sichuan Energy Investment, Han’s Laser Technology, Changzhou Xingyu and CDH Investments participated in the B+ financing round. However, some state-controlled investors, as well as existing investors, have also participated in the round.
The B+ is already the third financing round this year: at the end of February 2021, SVOLT had already closed an A financing round of 3.5 billion yuan. In August, the B financing round was then completed, at which time SVOLT had raised 10.28 billion yuan.
SVOLT had only recently increased its production capacities planned for 2025 from the previously announced 320 GWh to 600 GWh annually. For context, SVOLT recorded 2.61 GWh of installed capacity in the first 11 months of 2021, according to the China Automotive Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance (CAPBIIA). “The company will consistently strengthen its R&D efforts, build a global technology-innovative brand image and consistently implement its global production capacity plan of 600 GWh in 2025,” said
Hongxin Yang, chairman and CEO of SVOLT.
The company is currently building eight battery factories with a combined capacity of 297 GWh, including the plant in Saarland, Germany. However, the focus is on China: a cell factory is to be built in Chengdu, which will have a capacity of 60 GWh in the third expansion phase. In February, SVOLT also announced plants in Huzhou in the Chinese province of Zhejiang and in Suining in Sichuan province – each with 20 GWh. In June, a further factory in the city of Nanjing in the Chinese province of Jiangsu was made public; this plant is to have a capacity of 14.6 GWh.
As reported, SVOLT offers, among other things, cobalt-free cells and relies on a proprietary nickel-manganese mix (NMX) or lithium-iron phosphate (LFP).
Source: Oceanpine Capital
