Buenos Aires custom made cylindrical lithium battery

State company Y-TEC, the tech arm of YPF, will open the first lithium battery cell factory in September, in La Plata, the capital of Buenos Aires province. Another plant, five times bigger, will kick off in Santiago del Estero in 2024.

The plant will generate 15 megawatts per year, which means it will produce lithium batteries capable of powering 2500 households. The batteries are envisaged for use in rural areas. For example, there is already a Buenos Aires province-backed project to supply the Paulino-Berisso island, home to 70 families who are currently off the power grid.

In the case of lithium, Y-TEC signed a contract with American company Livent, which extracts the mineral in Catamarca and, for the first time, sold part of its production in Argentina. According to Salvarezza, for industrialization to grow in scale, part of the production ought to be sold on the local market.

The lithium batteries' cell manufacturing plant in Berisso, La Plata, will open in September, an event top government officials are expected to attend. The plant will generate 15 megawatts per year, which means it will produce lithium batteries capable of powering 2500 households. The batteries are envisaged for use in rural areas.

Another plant, five times bigger, will kick off in Santiago del Estero in 2024. “We want to position ourselves as region leaders in lithium industrialization,” said Roberto Salvarezza, president of Y-TEC and YPF Litio. The companies are carrying out three projects to develop local providers, and they expect 50% of each battery to be locally made.

Chile has chosen Byd, the world's largest manufacturer of electric cars, to design a project to produce 50,000 tons of LFP-type cathodic material, which is a part of the battery. Byd has also just purchased Ford's former Brazil factory to produce electric cars. “Our neighbors are pushing us to move faster,” he said.