VW and Daimler next to turn to China’s CATL for batteries?
Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) has been making the news through its hook up with PSA as well as his cooperation with BMW in China. Now it appears as if Volkswagen and Daimler too have been reaching out to secure the batteries for their upcoming electric cars.
China’s CATL is flying so to speak as it won over large customers and came in as the world third largest battery maker with an output of 6.8 GWh in 2016. Accordingly, the Chinese battery manufacturer is working on a Gigafactory of its own in China and also delivers cells for the BMW i3 (we reported).
The Foxconn backed company got offices in both Berlin and Munich and CATL reportedly wants to roll out 50 GWh a year from 2020 onwards and that is in China alone.
Exactly a year ago, CATL had outspokenly approached the European market for the first time. Now it appears that after BMW and PSA, Volkswagen and Daimler are also interested in working together, Wardsauto reports.
So far, the new cooperations are nothing but likely and the publication quotes CATL’s CTO Bob Galyen, who would not deny the news reports.
Neither Daimler nor Volkswagen have confirmed any such partnership.
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