ProLogium holds groundbreaking for new manufacturing plant

ProLogium has held the groundbreaking ceremony for its new gigafactory located in Loon-Plage, France, which is near Dunkirk.

The company, which has its headquarters in Taiwan, is planning to produce solid state battery (SSB) cells for third-party customers which can then be built up into packs. It has been producing battery cells at the mother plant since 2013.

The company originally had about 90 different sites under consideration, but lower energy costs and the availability of sufficient power tipped the balance in favor of the Dunkirk site.

Guests at the ProLogium groundbreaking included senior French government ministers (Photo: Power Progress)

Once construction of the plant has been completed, ProLogium is targeting an annual output of about 4 GW of battery cells. This will continue to be ramped up at stages over the coming years. The factory will produce the company’s latest Gen4 cells.

Investors in the project include Croation supercar company Rimac. A power density of 360 Wh/kg lends itself to high-performance vehicles, but the cells can be used across all type of on- and off-highway applications.

ProLogium was founded 20 years ago in 2006 by CEO Vincent Yang. Speaking at the opening ceremony he said: “You can make anything once. True innovation is repeatable. Our disciplined manufacturing process will achieve the highest standards in quality, while also achieving market growth.”

The company says that it holds more than 1,000 international patents covering its solid state battery technology, which is based on a composite electrolyte material.

Power Progress spoke with Catherine Sung, ProLogium’s head of Business Management and Supply Chain, at the groundbreaking event to get more details on the battery tech and manufacturing processes. The information will feature in an upcoming magazine issue.