Innovative battery designer and producer Inobat announced this week that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Serbian Ministry of Finance and the municipality of Cuprija to build a second “giga battery” manufacturing and recycling factory, the company said in a press release.
“We selected Cuprija as InoBat’s second CEE site because of its welcoming and eager local community and hands-on and proactive municipality government,” said Marian Bocek, InoBat CEO. “Another major “Plus Point” of Cuprija is the potential for co-developing our own distributed power, smart grid and electricity from renewable sources for own consumption.”
The company added that Cuprija will be the location for the “Serbia Giga Factory and Recycling Project code named Lion, which has been under development for the past 2 years with International Finance Corporation (IFC).
“Project Lion will be the second InoBat Giga Factory in the CEE, to supply offtake growth from InoBat’s Voderady R&D Pilot line and mini-Giga Factory in Slovakia,” the company continued, adding that “Project Lion has achieved an indicative Incentives Package of approximately EUR 419 mln from the Serbian Government.”
Inobat board member Dr. Tara Lindstedt commented on the agreement, saying that “Project Lion has progressed,” adding that “earlier in the year we signed an MOU with the Minth Group to collaborate across the Battery value-chain in Europe, starting with Serbia, focussing on green energy supply for our factories, materials, and recycling.
“Our decision to locate InoBat’s second CEE facility in Serbia was in part influenced by Minth’s long and positive experience there.”
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic noted the agreement and said that “we are pleased to support InoBat’s investment in Serbia, delivering jobs in the new decarbonised circular economy.”InoBat specialises in pioneering research, development, design, manufacturing, supply and recycling of innovative electric batteries custom-designed to meet the specific scope and requirements of global mainstream and specialist OEMs and energy sector participants. InoBat’s sector focus is on the automotive, commercial vehicle, motorsport, and aerospace sectors.
InoBat is backed by a strong consortium of strategic investors and partners such as Rio Tinto, Gotion, Amara Raja, Ideanomics and the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank Bank, and it original sponsors the IPM Group, Avanea and Across. InoBat achieved R&D grant financing under the EU sponsored programme, Important Projects for Common European Interest (IPCEI), and additional support from the Slovak Government.
SasaKokalj, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
