BYD wants to support its ambitious electric vehicle plans in China with a new battery gigafactory that will be able to produce 20 GWh of battery cells for its electric vehicles.

The Chinese electric vehicle company is investing 10 billion yuan (~$1.49 billion USD) in the facility located in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality.

They announced that have broken ground on the new factory last week and they plan to be done within a year.

China’s Xinhuanet reported:

“With an investment of 10 billion yuan (about 1.49 billion U. S. dollars), the power battery factory under construction will have an annual output capacity of 20 gigawatt hours (GWh) and will become a major battery production base for new energy vehicles in the country.”

At an output 20 GWh, it would make BYD’s new factory one of the largest battery factories in the world.

Tesla’s own Gigafactory 1 in Nevada, which is currently believed to be the largest battery cell factory in the world, has an estimated output of about 35 GWh per year.

This is actually BYD’s second new battery gigafactory 1 within the last year.

Last summer, they opened a new factory located in the western province of Qinghai. They expect that this factory will have an output of over 24 GWh.

BYD’s new factory will consist of “eight fully-automated lithium-ion battery production lines” that will make everything from the battery cells to the full battery packs.

The company will use the battery packs for its electric vehicle production in China, which consist of electric cars, buses, and trucks.

BYD focuses mostly on the production of prismatic LiFePO4 battery cells, different from most of the auto industry’s NCA and NMC battery cells.

Between all its factories, BYD’s total production capacity will near 100 GWh by the start of the next decade to support its ramp-up in EV production.

BYD President and Chairman Wang Chuanfu previously said that he sees all new cars potentially being electric in China as soon as in 2030.

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