Rosatom doubles Russia's Li-ion battery capacity with second gigafactory

Russian atomic corporation Rosatom has said it launched its new gigafactory in the Moscow region on Oct. 6, the company's second such facility producing lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and stationary power systems.

The launch of the facility, with a capacity of 4 gigawatt-hours per year, doubles Rosatom's Li-ion battery production capacity and propels the formation of Russia's battery industry.

The country inaugurated its lithium-ion battery production at scale less than a year ago, with Rosatom commissioning its first gigafactory, in Kaliningrad oblast, in December 2025. That was meant to be ramped up through 2026, reaching full capacity in 2027.

The two plants, covering key production stages from material preparation for battery cells to finished battery pack assembly, are designed to produce up to 18 million cells and 50,000 Li-ion batteries annually each.

The second gigafactory project went ahead under a long-term contract that Rosatom concluded with Moscow bus network operator Mosgortrans, which guarantees a multiyear offtake of batteries for electric buses, EVs and electric river vessels.

Rosatom does not disclose the level of backward integration of its new factories. Despite Russia extracting most battery metals, including nickel and cobalt, it still lacks its own lithium supply. Given this and the underdeveloped domestic processing of multi-metal mixed hydroxides, the country's new battery industry must therefore rely on imported cathode materials.

Rosatom has made several efforts to secure captive lithium supply even earlier than 2030, when Polar Lithium, its 50-50 joint venture with Nornickel, is expected to commission a spodumene ore mine, a concentrator and a chemical plant producing 45,000 metric tons/year of lithium compounds.

This month, the corporation said it is aiming to break ground on a mining and processing facility at Bougoula, a lithium deposit in Mali, in 2028. And two years ago, Rosatom signed a deal with Bolivian state-owned lithium company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos to produce 14,000 mt/year of lithium carbonate from the Salar de Uyuni brine, but the project has been delayed due to community opposition and the general elections in Bolivia in late 2025, which have led to a few shifts in the country's vision, including to the ongoing mining industry regulations review.