Shanghai (ZXZC)- Chinese automaker Geely Auto and battery maker Sunwoda on Jan. 19 broke ground on the power battery manufacturing base under the operation of their joint venture, according to a post on Sunwoda's WeChat account, marking a further deployment of Geely's EV battery business.

Ground-breaking ceremony for Geely-Sunwoda battery base; photo credit: Sunwoda

The joint venture, dubbed Shandong Geely Sunwoda Power Battery Co.,Ltd. (Geely Sunwoda), was incorporated in Sept. 2021 in Zaozhuang, Shandong province. Involving a registered capital of 100 million yuan ($15.75 million), Geely Sunwoda is jointly held by Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd. (30%), Geely Auto Group (28.5%), and Jirun Automobile (41.5%), an indirect 99% owned subsidiary of Geely Automobile Holdings Limited, according to the corporate database Tianyancha.

The registration of Geely Sunwoda came after the three parent companies signed an agreement in last July to build a joint venture engaging in the development, production, and sales of power battery cells, battery modules and battery packs for HEVs.

The products of the joint venture will be used by Geely Auto to develop its proprietary second-generation HEV system, which is compatible with multiple models of Geely.

Covering an area of around 451mu ($300,700 square meters), the Zaozhuang-based power battery base is expected to offer over 2,000 jobs after starting operation.

According to Ye Zhilin, the assistant to president of Sunwoda, the installation and debugging of manufacturing facilities will start at the battery plant in Sept. and products are likely to come off the production line at the end of this year.