Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., (CATL) announced that it has kicked off serial production of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles at its plant in Germany, the first facility it will operate outside of China.
The plant is called Contemporary Amperex Technology Thuringia GmbH, or CATT, and started production in recent days. The first batch of CATL cells rolled off of a new production line that was recently installed in the plant’s G2 building. The remaining lines are currently in the process of being commissioned.
CATL started production after the cells passed all tests, which the company said are required of all global products. The tests “prove CATL is capable of starting cell production and supplying cells to its European customers from its local plant.”
Located roughly 3.5 hours from Tesla’s Giagafactory Berlin production plant, CATT received the green light to produce battery cells in April 2022.
The factory was part of CATL’s €1.8 billion ($2 billion) initiative to capture a majority of the global EV market by expanding outside of China. With Europe being such a major hotspot for EVs with automakers like Tesla, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz in the region, CATL is in the right place.
CATL’s European President Matthias Zentgraf commented on the project:
“The production kickoff proves that we kept our promise to our customers as a reliable partner of the industry and we stay committed to Europe’s e-mobility transition even under very challenging conditions like the pandemic. We are working hard to ramp up production to full capacity, which is our top priority for the coming year.”
CATT will initially manufacture 8 GWh of capacity annually thanks to permits from the state of Thuringia. Eventually, the company will scale production to 14 GWh annually while providing 2,000 new employment opportunities. Module production, which takes place in the G1 building, has been underway since Q3 2021.
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