Tesla battery supplier Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) is doubling down on electric vehicle (EV) battery production with wind under its sails from a recent approval to build a factory in Germany.
CATL gained approval to move forward with building battery cells at its EV battery factory in Thuringia, Germany, as the first push in a 1.8 billion euro ($2 billion USD) investment, according to the South China Morning Post.
CATL is China’s largest EV battery manufacturer, and the move is set to bring them closer to Tesla’s new Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg, just 3.5 hours from Thuringia, in addition to other German automakers.
The factory will also be Germany’s first EV battery plant, as it enters its final stage of construction and machine installation.
Ford in Talks with China’s CATL to Supply EV Batteries to its Canadian Plant: Report https://t.co/Phjxoei91e
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President of CATL’s Europe plans Matthias Zentgraf said the factory “provides a fundamental impetus for the urgently needed energy transition.” Zentgraf continued, “We are glad to be the first company to receive approval.”
The factory is expected to have a production capacity of about 8GWh, enough for about 120,000 cars annually, upon becoming fully operational at the end of this year.
Last month, it was discovered that CATL is also looking to invest $5 billion in a North American plant, another means of capturing the global EV battery market ahead of major worldwide transitions to zero-emission automobiles.
