Boston Power, a provider of next generation electric vehicle battery design and production, has secured USD $290 million in local government financial support for the expansion of its two facilities in China. The company's Liyang facility will receive a total investment of USD$160 million dollars, increasing its manufacturing capacity fivefold by 2016. The company's Tianjin facility will grow its capacity to 4GW by 2017, and is expected to reach 8GWh in manufacturing capacity by 2018.

The expansion of these facilities will allow Boston Power to meet the growing demand by leading Chinese automakers in the Yangtze River Delta and throughout the Bohai Gulf in Northern China. China's EV market is expected to reach USD $35 billion by 2020, with demand for high-end lithium-ion batteries hitting 100 GWh.

Sonny Wu, chairman of Boston Power noted, "China is the largest and fastest growing EV market in the world and leads in the manufacturing of Eco-EV and E-buses. Our analysis shows that this market will experience significant battery supply constraints over the next 3-5 years which we aim to address."

On the decisions by both governments to provide financial support, Mr. Wu added, "this is a vote of confidence in Boston Power's leading technology in high energy density, longer life-cycle and fast charging EV batteries. We will use this support to ease a backlog of secured contract orders for our range of more than 30 EV battery designs used by leading Chinese automakers. We are proud that our batteries have demonstrated a 30+% drive range against local competitors."

This announcement comes on the back of the recent U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change. Both nations have committed themselves to reducing their carbon emissions by over 20%, by 2025 and 2030 respectively, while increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 20% by 2030.

Mr. Xiangyu Ni, chairman of the Administration Commission of Tianjin Binhai Hi-Tech Industrial Development Area, said, "Tianjin has been on the cusp of China's drive for EV adoption and we're constantly embracing a growing variety of EV car models into our city and into our grid. We are specifically supporting local and foreign companies, such as Boston Power, whose innovations are helping China, the world's largest auto market, to meet its aggressive demand for long-range EV."

(Photo: Sonny Wu, chairman of Boston Power)