(Yicai Global) Nov. 5 -- Eve Energy unveiled a new capacity expansion plan for its power battery plant in Jingmen, Hubei province that will lift the total investment in the production base to as much as CNY30.5 billion (USD4.8 billion). The new plan replaces two deals the Chinese power battery giant inked this summer.

Eve Energy and its Jingmen-based unit signed an agreement with the city’s government yesterday, the battery maker said in a statement the same day. It had penned the previous deals in June and August with the manager of Jingmen High-Tech Industrial Development Zone.

Huizhou-based Eve Energy is expanding its production capacity to meet surging demand from the electric vehicle industry. At the end of last month, the company also unveiled a plan to build a power lithium-ion battery production base in Chengdu with annual capacity of 50 GWh.

The Jingmen project is being built in phases at Eve Energy’s manufacturing base in the city. Some 124.11 gigawatt-hours of capacity is under construction or planned, requiring an estimated outlay of CNY21.91 billion. Once finished, the base’s total capacity will increase to 152.61GWh from the current 28.5GWh. The firm did not disclose a construction schedule.

Compared with earlier statements, the latest included the project’s total investment amount and updated the total power battery capacity after completion.

After jumping as much as 4.4 percent in morning trade, Eve Energy’s stock price [SHE:300014] ended 1.1 percent down today at CNY113.49 (USD17.73). The Shenzhen stock market also slid, losing 0.6 percent.

In June, Eve Energy announced an 82.5 GWh lithium battery project in Jingmen to increase output to 105.5 GWh. Later in August, the firm said it would expand production by building two new assembly lines. One would have made 15 GWh of lithium iron phosphate batteries, mainly used in logistics vehicles and homes, while the other would have turned out 15 GWh of ternary lithium batteries for passenger cars.

Editor: Futura Costaglione