CATL, China’s largest battery supplier for electric vehicles, received permission this week from the German state of Thuringia to produce eight gigawatt-hours of battery cells a year at a new plant.
The permit will allow CATL to launch battery cell output at the Thuringia factory before the end of 2022, the company said.
CATL started construction at the site in 2019 and is now installing equipment.
Annual production capacity at the plant is expected to increase to 14 GWh and create 2,000 jobs eventually.
It will supply major German automakers, CATL said, without identifying any customers.
CATL, based in Ningde in east China’s Fujian province, produces EV batteries in China only.
Battery production capacity at the Chinese battery giant expanded 167 percent to 96.7 gigawatt hours in 2021, according to Korean market research firm SNE Research.
In addition to Germany, CATL is weighing U.S., Canada and Mexico for a factory capable of producing out up to 80 GWh of batteries a year, Bloomberg reported last month.
