Moscow is accumulating investors

As Kommersant found out, the Moscow authorities plan to purchase localized batteries for various types of electric transport in 2024-2030 for almost 130 billion rubles. Most of the funding will go to deliveries for electric buses and Moskvich. The city government is going to select a supplier through a competition. The main contenders are Rosatom, Rostec and Rusnano.

The Moscow government will hold an electronic competition for the localization of the production of batteries for electric vehicles in the capital for three years, the press service of the city government said on Wednesday. “Under the terms of the contract, the supplier-investor will undertake to localize the production of five types of batteries for electric vehicles in Moscow within three years, including for electric buses, tram cars, Moskvich electric vehicles, river transport, electric scooters and bicycles,”— says in message.

Production will be organized at one of the sites of the Technopolis Moscow special economic zone, private investment in the project should amount to at least 3 billion rubles.

According to Kommersant, potential investors in the battery localization project in Moscow include Inenergy (part of Rosnano), Rostec and Rosatom, but the latter plans to supply cells for batteries from a gigafactory in Kaliningrad. At the same time, it is assumed that from 2026 cells should also be produced in Moscow, Kommersant’s interlocutors say. According to Kommersant’s information, the manufacturer of supercapacitors TEEMP (part of ZAO Rotek) is also considering the possibility of participating in the competition.

Potential purchase volumes from 2024 to 2030, according to Kommersant, will amount to almost 130 billion rubles, most of which in monetary terms is intended for electric buses and Moskvich.

The cost of a battery for an electric bus should be up to 12 million rubles, for Moskvich – up to 0.5 million rubles.

Kommersant sent inquiries to the companies and the department of investment and industrial policy in Moscow. Rostec confirmed its interest in the competition and said that “projects in this area are being discussed.” Earlier, the corporation announced the development of the production of batteries for electric vehicles, which can be used in Moskvich electric vehicles.

Daniil Itkis, Head of Metal-Ion Batteries at Inenergy Group of Companies, confirmed that the company plans to participate in the competition. “We are developing almost completely a domestic package of technologies, we are carrying out our own developments, which we plan to put into serial production in three years,” he said. Mr. Itkis clarified that developments are already underway according to the preliminary technical requirements of the Moscow Department of Transport.

RENERA (part of Rosatom’s fuel company TVEL) confirmed that they are considering the possibility of participating in the competition, noting that assembly production of batteries will be organized in Moscow. “This will make it possible to use the production of lithium-ion cells in the Kaliningrad region and the assembly production of batteries in Moscow as efficiently as possible. A line of modern batteries has already been developed for various types of electric transport, including electric buses, trolleybuses with increased autonomous running, trams, electric vehicles, river transport and other equipment. Batteries are in pilot and serial operation as part of electric vehicles,” the company said.

Moscow is actively purchasing electric buses – the fleet of Mosgortrans has more than a thousand. There are 202 ultra-fast charging stations in the city, in July Sergei Sobyanin signed an order to install 115 more such stations.

All of them are compatible with LiAZ and KamAZ electric buses. In 2022, the government of the capital received for 1 rub. Renault plant in Moscow, and on its basis started the Moskvich automobile plant, which plans to produce electric vehicles, among other things.

Dmitry Babansky from SBS Consulting notes that the production of batteries without the localization of cells is just an assembly production. At the same time, for the full localization and investment attractiveness of the project, demand consolidation is needed. These types of transport, as a rule, use nickel-manganese-cobalt – NMC (scooters, Moskvich, etc.), except for electric buses, for which LTO batteries (lithium titanate) were usually purchased, he continues. “Therefore, unification is also necessary here, then the project will be more interesting for investors. At the same time, for the development of the lithium-ion battery industry, it is important to produce cells from domestic materials – there may be problems with this without unification, ”concludes the analyst.

Olga Nikitina, Polina Smertina