With an investment of more than 20 million euros, the company wants to meet the continuing strong demand. Further investments are planned.
VARTA AG is investing in the growth market of renewable energies: In the summer, its new factory for energy storage systems will go into operation. In future, up to 100,000 energy storage systems per year will be produced on a total area of more than 5000 square metres at the Neunheim site in Ellwangen, Baden-Württemberg. With an average capacity of ten kilowatt hours per energy storage system, the production output will then correspond to more than one gigawatt hour per year.
Production is highly automated and uses the latest Industry 4.0 technologies, including robots and laser welding processes. The Ellwangen-based technology company is investing more than 20 million euros for this. Further investments are planned. A total of around 120 jobs will be created at the new plant.
Dominik Gluba, General Manager of VARTA Energy Storage: "Growth in the home storage market continues unabated. In the first quarter of 2023, more than 110,000 new storage units were installed in Germany. For the first half of the year, we expect almost 240,000 new installations in Germany. With the production capacities of the new Gigafactory, we can adapt well to the growing market."
The expansion of production will take place in two stages: Starting in the fourth quarter of 2023, the production output should be around 500 megawatt hours per year, which corresponds to about 50,000 storage systems. The output is then to be increased to one gigawatt hour by the beginning of 2025 at the latest.
The investment in the future market of renewable energies is part of VARTA AG's overall strategic concept. The company had announced that it would target growth markets even more specifically with innovative products as part of its restructuring.
The production facility in the immediate vicinity of the VARTA headquarters in Ellwangen underlines the loyalty of the tradition-rich company to production in Germany. With direct access to the A7 motorway, the new factory is well connected and accessible to the surrounding metropolises of Ulm, Würzburg and Stuttgart. A further expansion of the site is already under consideration: Additional production lines are to be added in the near future, and expansion areas have already been planned on site.