Major Chinese lithium-ion battery manufacturer EVE Energy plans to build a production facility for power and energy storage batteries in Jingmen in the central province of Hubei.

The project has a design capacity of 30GWh/yr, including 15GWh/yr for lithium iron phosphate batteries used in logistics vehicles and household energy storage and 15GWh/yr for ternary batteries used in electric passenger cars. Further details such as the construction schedules and launch dates were undisclosed.

EVE Energy develops, produces and sells consumer batteries, including lithium galvanic, small lithium ion and ternary cylindrical batteries; power batteries used in electric vehicles and their battery systems; as well as energy storage batteries.

EVE is one of the 10 biggest power battery manufacturers in China. It installed 1.18GWh of capacity in 2020 and 0.96GWh in the first half of 2021, accounting for 1.9pc and 1.8pc respectively of the domestic market. The company produced 429.66mn units of lithium batteries last year.

China has been accelerating development of new energy vehicles (NEVs) as it looks to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Beijing has extended its government subsidies for NEVs for two years to the end of 2022 and exempted the vehicles from purchase taxes for 2021 and 2022. The country's production and sales of power batteries and NEVs both hit new highs during January-June, supported by government stimulus policies.

Total output of power batteries in the first half of this year rose to 74.7GWh, up by 217.5pc from a year earlier, with installed volumes increasing by 200.3pc to 52.5GWh over the same period, according to data from the China Automotive Manufacturers Association (CAAM).

China's NEV output rose to 1.215mn in the first half of 2021, up by 200.6pc from the previous year. Sales increased by 201.5pc to 1.206mn units, the same level as in 2019 as whole, the CAAM data show.