Europe’s Largest Factory for Commercial-Vehicle Battery Systems Opened in Hessen

The state-of-the-art factory has been inaugurated in Darmstadt in the South of Hessen by Akasol. Akasol is a Hessian developer and manufacturer of high-energy and high-performance lithium-ion battery systems for use in buses, commercial vehicles, rail vehicles and industrial vehicles, as well as in ships and boats. The new factory has a production capacity of up to 1 GWh in the first phase of its expansion and will gradually expand to 2.5 GWh by late 2022. Depending on customer requirements, this can be expanded to up to 5 GWh, making the factory by far the largest production location for Li-ion battery systems with commercial-vehicle applications in Europe. Once it is operating at full capacity, the facility will be able to produce battery systems for more than 10,000 commercial vehicles each year. Akasol is investing more than EUR 100 million in this location.

“Founded by a young entrepreneur from southern Germany together with researchers and developers from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Akasol has always managed to hold its own at the forefront of technological development. The example of Akasol demonstrates the quality of Hessen as a business location, the relevance of the diverse university landscape for economic development in Hessen, and the potential that sustainable technologies have for creating future-proof jobs and generate economic momentum,” says Tarek Al-Wazir, Minister of Economics in Hessen.