Chinese battery maker, SVOLT, has announced it will abandon plans to build two factories in Saarland, Western Germany, and will also shut down its European operations entirely by January 2025. This decision follows an earlier cancellation of another gigafactory in Germany in May, even after some equipment had been installed.

SVOLT’s planned facilities
SVOLT originally planned to establish a cell manufacturing facility in Überherrn, Saarland, alongside a battery assembly facility in Heusweiler, Saarland. However, these projects will now be scrapped as part of what the company describes as a strategic decision driven primarily by the underperformance of the European EV market.
The battery assembly facility in Heusweiler was to be commissioned first, producing battery modules and packs with cells imported from outside Europe. The cell manufacturing facility was intended to follow. SVOLT’s revenue strategy in Europe differed from its operations in Asia, as it planned to focus on subsystems, specifically cells, modules, and their control systems. Although no formal supply contracts were confirmed, BMW was rumoured to have a contract in place, and SVOLT reported being in “contact and exchange with all European OEMs.”
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How does this fit in with wider industry trends?
European battery manufacturing has faced significant challenges over … the past year. Northvolt, a major player in the sector, scaled back its expansion plans, cancelling or pausing several projects. Additionally, it lost a high value contract with BMW, a shareholder, after cell samples failed to meet BMW’s standards.
Volkswagen also reduced the planned capacity of its gigafactory in Salzgitter, Germany, citing lacklustre EV sales growth across Europe. This announcement came as Volkswagen was beginning to show signs of stress within the automotive industry.
Elsewhere, ACC, a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz, Stellantis, and TotalEnergies, paused development on two of its planned gigafactories in Germany and Italy. In September, the Italian government withdrew funding for ACC’s facility in Italy, citing the group’s failure to make a firm commitment to the site.
READ: Europe’s automotive industry calls for a delay of the 2025 CO2 targets
The European EV industry
Many of the changes in Europe’s gigafactory and battery pipeline have cited the European EV market as the primary reason for altering or cancelling plans. Within Europe year-to-date (Jan-September) EV sales are down 4%, although this figure obscures considerable regional differences.
In markets such as the UK and the Netherlands EV sales are up 14% and 7.8%, respectively, and widely in Europe BEV sales have risen 12% year-on-year. However, EV sales in Germany, Europe’s largest automotive market, have declined by 20% year-to-date, largely due to the government’s unexpected phase out of EV subsidies in December 2023. Elsewhere France, Norway, and Sweden have also seen minor declines in EV sales, down by 0.6%, 3.1%, and 11% year-to-date, respectively.
SVOLT is just one of multiple players reassessing commitment in response to uneven market growth and shifting policy landscapes across the region.
More information
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Image credit: SVOLT
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