Poland Aid to LG Chem EV Battery Plant Gets EU Approval

The investment aid will support LG Chem’s €325 million investment in a new vertically integrated manufacturing plant for the production of lithium-ion batteries in Poland.

Poland’s €36 million (Rs 293 crore) investment aid to chemical company LG Chem, a part of one of Korea’s biggest company the LG Corp for a new electric vehicle batteries plant to be developed in Poland has been approved by the European Commission.

The investment aid will support LG Chem’s €325 million investment in a new vertically integrated manufacturing plant for the production of lithium-ion batteries in Poland. Which upon completion is expected to provide around 80,000 batteries for electric vehicles in the European Economic Area (EEA).

The project is expected to create more than 700 direct jobs. The manufacturing plant is located in the Dolnoślaskie region of Poland, an area eligible for regional aid.

The Commission said it assessed the aid measure under the Guidelines on Regional State Aid for 2014-2020, which enable Member States to support economic development and employment in the EU’s less developed regions and to foster regional cohesion in the Single Market.

According to the Commission, without the public funding, the project would not have been carried out in Poland or any other EU country. Moreover, the aid is limited to the minimum necessary to trigger the investment in Poland rather than outside the EEA and the investment aid will contribute to job creation as well as to the economic development and to the competitiveness of a disadvantaged region.