Tesla supplier CATL to produce battery cells for 120,000 electric cars annually as German state greets Chinese investors

Name: Luxury shopping centres open new battleground for China’s electric car makers
Uploaded: 2022-04-06T07:38:50.000Z
Duration: 2 min 52 s
Description: Luxury shopping centres open new battleground for China’s electric car makers

Approval for CATL’s German unit to produce battery cells by year end shows exemplary process, company says

Plant sits about 3.5-hours’ drive from Tesla’s Gigafactory in Berlin and will also be Germany’s first battery-production facility

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A Tesla battery pack is displayed during a media tour of its factory. Photo: AP

Ann Cao

Published: 3:38pm, 6 Apr 2022Updated: 7:20pm, 6 Apr 2022

Contemporary Amperex Technology, China’s largest electric-vehicle (EV) battery manufacturer, is set to complete its first investment in Europe after gaining approval for a facility in Germany, putting it closer to Tesla and other major customers.

The company received the green light to produce battery cells in the state of Thuringia, part of its 1.8 billion euros (US$2 billion) bet to capture the global shift in demand for EVs, it said in a statement late on Tuesday. The firm currently builds cells into modules from an existing facility acquired in 2019.

The plant, its first outside China as well as Germany’s first, will allow the firm known as CATL to get closer to Tesla and other major customers in the region. The US carmaker opened its Gigafactory in Berlin, about a 3.5-hour drive from Thuringia, last month.

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Luxury shopping centres open new battleground for China’s electric car makers

The project “provides a fundamental impetus for the urgently needed energy transition,” said Matthias Zentgraf, CATL’s president for Europe, adding that the approval process was exemplary. “We are glad to be the first company to receive approval” to manufacture Made-in-Germany batteries, he added.

The approval suggests Germany is keeping its door open to global investors including from China, despite recent misgivings. China’s stance on the Ukraine invasion has prompted European leaders to warn countries against helping Russia evade sanctions. An EU-China investment deal has stalled since last year.

CATL’s plant in Thuringia, Germany. Photo: Handout

CATL stock fell 2.1 per cent in Shenzhen on Wednesday in a generally weak broader market amid concerns Covid-19 lockdowns will crimp manufacturing and undermine the official 5.5 per cent growth target for 2022. The stock has weakened 11 per cent so far this year.