Sunlight has officially put an end to its mammoth €1.2 billion investment in the creation of a gigafactory for the production of lithium batteries, with the Olympia group informing the Innovation Fund in a letter that it will not use the €245 million in funding it had secured from the Fund's resources for the construction of the factory.

The batteries the plant would have produced would have been suitable for heavy industrial vehicle applications, ship electrification and grid-connected electricity storage.

The company's plan initially included setting up the giant plant in Western Macedonia. At the end of last year, Olympia Group CEO Andreas Athanasopoulos, in an interview with the newspaper Kathimerini, had foreshadowed the cancellation of the above investment.

The main reason for the cancellation of the strategic investment, according to reports, is the European Union's policy towards Chinese competition, which has led to the cancellation of a series of investments in the production of lithium batteries.

Closely linked to the cancellation of the investment is the departure of Nikos Mantzoufas from Sunlight, which he announced in a post on LinkedIn. Mr. Mantzoufas had a coordinating role for the realization of the investment.