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King Willem-Alexander opens ELEO battery production plant in Helmond
On Thursday, January 26, King Willem-Alexander opened ELEO’s new battery production plant on the Automotive Campus in Helmond. With the opening of the plant, the TU/e startup is increasing its battery production capacity tenfold. The company expects to grow from 60 to 200 employees over the coming two years.
ELEO designs and builds high-performance battery systems for a variety of industrial applications, including construction and agricultural machinery. Using these scalable battery systems, heavier vehicles and machinery can also be electrified in order to accelerate the sustainability of this sector.
Ambition
"The opening of our new factory is a celebratory moment for our entire team, which is why we are particularly proud that King Willem-Alexander officially opened the factory," said Bas Verkaik, co-founder at ELEO. "With the new factory, we are able to significantly increase our production capacity, which is important to meet the growing demand for our battery packs. In addition, this plant serves as a blueprint for further international scale-up in the coming years."
New production plant
In the new building, annual production capacity will increase tenfold to some 10,000 battery packs. Collectively, these can store around 500 MWh of power. The 3,000 m2 building is equipped with innovative machines and clean rooms which are used to assemble battery modules in a fully automated manner. In addition, the facility has high-tech research and development labs to further advance current battery technology.
The modular approach makes it easy to tailor the batteries to customer demands. “Our system is suitable both for an excavator of 600 volts or higher and for a much smaller vehicle of 50 volts. This significantly lowers the threshold for industry and construction to switch to electric propulsion,” says Verkaik.
Bas Verkaik, co-founder of ELEO
From student team to startup
The ELEO company was founded in 2017 by three former students of Eindhoven University of Technology. As one of the first generation of student teams, they gained experience with electric driving and battery packs. In 2016, this led to an 80-day trip around the world on a self-built electric motorcycle.
Following the founding of the company, the first battery systems were launched in 2020. In 2022, the Japanese family business Yanmar Holdings Co., Ltd. acquired a majority stake.