To make sufficient numbers of electric vehicles in the future will require supplies and materials for millions of batteries and components and EV charging stations. Two German companies are planning new production facilities in the U.S. related to the effort.
Separately, Toyota announced on Monday plans to build a $1.3 billion electric vehicle battery production plant on an 1,800-acre site in Greensboro, North Carolina. The state is home to several lithium companies and the largest known hard rock lithium deposit in the U.S.
Also, major copper recycler Aurubis of Hamburg, Germany, recently announced it will invest $340 million in a recycling and melting facility for multi-metal recycling in Augusta, Georgia, creating 125 new jobs.
“While the new jobs and investment in Augusta are important, the long-term impact on the electric vehicle ecosystem is huge,” said Pat Wilson, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “Currently, the vital metals used in many of our important daily items are sourced almost exclusively outside of the U.S. As the auto industry aggressively transitions to electric mobility, it becomes more and more important to create the entire value chain of supply at home.”
In addition, ADS-TEC Energy GmbH of Nurtingen, Germany, will begin trading shares on the Nasdaq later in December with plans to establish a subsidiary in the U.S. The company makes battery-buffered ultrafast charging technology called ChargeBox and hopes to take advantage of a future national EV charging network.
“We believe it is necessary to be in the U.S. and are right now looking for a site…and hiring teams,” said CEO Thomas Speidel in a recent interview. “We can completely service and equip and have to have a network out of the U.S.” Noting a variety of new OEM entrants into the EV business, he said growth in EVs is only possible if the charging infrastructure catches up. “The U.S. market is huge,” he said.
Speidel said ChargeBox technology is actually a platform of hardware, software (including security) and services that will be marketed to hundreds of other expected businesses that will provide energy and services to future charging facilities. As such, he believes the ADS-Tech concept is so far unique.
ADS-Tech, with 80 employees, has a production facility in Europe making 5,000 chargers per year and recently said it will have charging systems in Spain by the end of the year.
In the U.S., Smart City Capital has placed an initial order for 20 ADS-Tech charging units for the Miami Dade area.
ADS-TEC Energy is part of ADS-TEC Group, part-owned by Bosch Termotechnik GmbH. ADS-TEC Energy and European Sustainable Growth Acquisition Corp. have entered an agreement to combine and to list on the Nasdaq once the deal closes.
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