(Yicai Global) April 14 -- An affiliate of Chinese wind turbine maker Envision Group will construct a large electric car battery factory in the US state of Kentucky to supply the latest generation of batteries to leading auto manufacturers around the world, financial news service Caijing reported today.

Envision AESC’s new plant will have an output of 30 gigawatt-hours, enough to supply batteries to 300,000 vehicles a year, the report said, citing a statement made by the firm yesterday. The high-performance batteries will increase the cruising range of electric cars and support fast charging. The factory should start operating in 2025 and will have the potential to expand capacity to 40 GWh.

Last month, Shanghai-based Envision AESC teamed up with German luxury car marque Mercedes-Benz to provide batteries for its EQS and EQE sport-utility vehicle models.

Envision AESC is also building battery factories in France’s Douai, the UK’s Sunderland and Japan’s Ibaraki. It runs 10 production bases and several research, development and engineering centers in Japan, the US, the UK, China and France.

Editor: Kim Taylor