China battery heavyweight Gotion High Tech has flipped the switch on its first production line at a former Bosch plant in Göttingen, central Germany.

The current production capacity plan for the Göttingen factory is 20 GWh which is expected to be completed in four phases. By mid-2024, the actual production capacity may reach 5 GWh, said the manufacturer.

Once fully operational, the plant is estimated to generate an annual output value of EUR 2 billion ($ 2,14 billion), as company representative said at the official launch held on Saturday.

“Our Göttingen factory's production line is highly automated, with an overall automation level of nearly 70%, and close to 80% in the module assembly stage,” said Ray Chen, vice president of Gotion Global.

The company said it expects to start supplying products for European customers from October. The battery pack products from the factory include those for commercial vehicles, energy storage systems, and passenger vehicles, the company said. Additionally, the factory will serve as an R&D, logistics, and after-sales service center for Gotion's European production and operations base.

Gotion said that it has received “a large number of orders from Europe” for its “Made in Germany” products. On Saturday alone, it signed cooperation agreements with five global companies.

Specifically, Gotion will continue to collaborate with BASF China on battery material-related projects. Gotion and Switzerland’s ABB will work together on battery product supply and technology R&D, to support the Chinese manufacturer’s new factories in Europe and the United States.

Cooperation with Dutch manufacturer of electric buses Ebusco will focus on the development and production of energy storage battery systems and wind and solar energy storage projects. Gotion will also cooperate with Ficosa and Idneo in intelligent mobile energy storage and charging vehicles, battery banking, battery recycling, BMS, and Big Data engineering.

The Volkswagen-backed battery maker is on a steep growth trajectory and has commissioned or announced the construction of numerous battery factories, primarily in China.

On Monday, Gotion and Slovak battery startup Inobat said they will jointly build an electric vehicles battery factory in Europe by 2026 with an initial output of 20 GWh. Construction is expected to begin in 2024 and the final location of the plant is yet to be announced.

Gotion is also building a $2.36 billion battery plant in Michigan and a $2 billion plant in Illinois in the US. In June, it became known that Gotion was considering building a 100 GWh battery cell factory in Morocco.

As reveled in a recent pv magazine webinar, Gotion wants to reach a global production capacity of 300 GWh by 2026 with 100 GWh oversees, including 40 GWh in Europe alone.