Electrovaya has placed purchase orders for battery system assembly equipment and begun hiring for its Ellicott manufacturing plant. Company officials say production at its Gigafactory could begin by this spring.

Capital investments for the local plant include battery system manufacturing and testing equipment along with awarding engineering work to prepare for further investments pertaining to planned cell manufacturing investments.

The initial investments are meant to provide Electrovaya an ability to start battery system assembly by the second quarter of the business year. Electrovaya officials said there is increasing demand for the company’s products from a wide range of heavy duty and electrified applications. The Company’s manufacturing facility on Precision Way in Ellicott is scheduled to produce Electrovaya’s proprietary Infinity lithium-ion ceramic cells.

“We are excited to start these initial investments at our Jamestown facility with the aim of being able to start assembly in the near term,” said Dr. Raj DasGupta, CEO of Electrovaya. “We are also making progress with regards to our detailed planning for the larger capital investments associated with the planned lithium ion cell manufacturing activities.”

The plant is expected to employ 250 people working three shifts once peak employment is reached sometime in 2026.

News broke in July 2022 that Electrovaya was eyeing Ellicott for a new factory after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a hydropower allotment to Electrovaya from the Niagara Power Project through the New York Power Authority.

Heidenhahn sold the building to Electrovaya for $5 million. Empire State Development (ESD) is assisting the project with up to $4 million through the performance-based Excelsior Jobs Tax Credit Program and $2.5 million in Regional Council Capital Funding. The Jamestown-area expansion will also benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act 45X production tax credits as well as grants and tax incentives from the state of New York, which the company will be able to access as the facility scales in output.

In November Electrovaya officials announced the company had received a direct loan in the amount of $50.8 million from the Export-Import Bank of the United States under the bank’s “Make More in America” initiative. The financing was the final piece of the puzzle to allow the company to build out the Ellicott plant and begin production.

The battery manufacturing facility is expected to lead to over 250 jobs and support Electrovaya’s exports to Japan, Canada and Australia. Electrovaya supplies batteries for the Raymond Corporation, a manufacturing company located in Greene County in New York state, and has a contract to supply a Toyota plant in Indiana. The Ellicott facility is also close to Electrovaya’s plant in Ontario, Canada.