CATL – German battery plant powers up local green transition
A new plant set up by China’s leading battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) in Germany to produce batteries for electric vehicles has brought significant economic and environmental benefits to the country and beyond.
Germany has long been a pivotal force in the global car industry, renowned as the birthplace of the automobile. With the drive towards greener mobility, it wants more manufacturers to build factories and advance domestic electric vehicle production.
CATL, headquartered in the city of Ningde, east China’s Fujian Province, started to build its first overseas base in 2018 in the German state of Thüringen.
Caspar Spinnen, public relations manager for CATL Germany, said :
The battery making business is something you do very close with your customers. It’s an eye to eye thing.
“And its important to have the short supply chains in the long term. We have had our first cooperation here in Germany starting in 2012. And then we decided to come here and start producing batteries in Germany and Europe in 2018,”
This localized production offers multiple advantages. With batteries representing around 40 percent of an electric vehicle’s price, local manufacturing reduces expenses and minimizes transport emissions. Importantly, it also creates jobs and fosters knowledge transfer.
Spinnen said,
We are bringing a lot of new know-how here into the region.
“Battery manufacturing is still quite a new subject in Europe and that also comes with some added benefits. We are also helping train people on the ground for future generations of battery production here on site,”
This investment aligns with the EU’s ambitious climate goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030.
But with not enough European battery producers to satisfy demand, Germany and other EU countries appear open to Chinese investment.
The plant aims to build hundreds of thousands of batteries for electric vehicles across the continent and beyond, to power the European Union’s growing EV industry.
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CATL – German battery plant powers up local green transition, source
