German executives are preparing to announce a new home for a lithium-ion battery plant designed to rival the output of Tesla Inc’s Gigafactory.

Terra E Holding GmbH (www.terrae.com) will shortly choose one of five candidate sites in Germany or a neighbouring country to build its 34GWh battery factory, according to Holger Gritzka, its Frankfurt-based CEO.

The former Thyssen Krupp manager has helped to assemble a consortium of 17 German companies and won government support for the project, which is expected to ‘break ground’ in the fourth quarter of 2019 and reach full
capacity in 2028.

This is the latest sign that German industry is gearing up for a new stage of the energy revolution. Lithium-ion batteries can help to stabilise electricity networks coping with intermittent flows of wind and solar power.

They’re also projected to power millions of plug-in cars — expected to roll off German production lines in the next decade.

Mr Gritzka said: “We have to be better in process technology than our competitors — a constant step ahead.” He emphasised that Terra E will be counting on Germany’s competitive edge in manufacturing robotics and automated production to make money.

The world’s battery-making capacity is set to more than double by 2021, reaching 278GWh, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Tesla’s 35 GWh Gigafactory in Nevada will make it the world’s second-largest battery maker.

In May, Chancellor Merkel ‘broke ground’ at a plant to assemble lithium-ion energy-storage units for Daimler AG (pictured), which produces Mercedes-Benz and Maybach luxury cars.