Site selection for the plant, which will swallow investment of more than 2 billion euros ($2.21 billion), "will be completed by the end of the year", Jeffrey Yambrick, vice president of international marketing and sales at SVOLT, said on Tuesday.

The plant, announced earlier this year, will ramp up annual production to 24 gigawatt hours in 2026, according to slides shown during the conference. The group presentation pointed to eastern Europe as a possible location.

Rival Contemporary Amperex Technology Co is currently spending up to 1.8 billion euros on building a battery cell production site in the German city of Erfurt, as a growing number of Asian players are setting up shop in Europe.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Michelle Martin)