CATL moves into German battery factory early

The Chinese battery cell giant CATL has moved into the offices near the planned battery factory in Erfurt, Germany. Moreover, they are also accelerating their entire schedule, according to European boss Matthias Zentgraf, who said “it is all about tempo”.

This means that personnel recruitment is set to begin as early as 2019 when CATL is to begin construction of the battery factory.

This also means that the start of production could move up to 2020 for CATL ideally. Previously, the production begin was planned for 2022.

The overall set up of the Erfurt factory will take place in four phases. A recycling facility will also be added to the factory in 2025.

In August, Zentgraf had stated that CATL would be using local suppliers for building the factory, both from within Germany as well as other European countries. The company stressed the increased effect on local job creation, as not only the factory would bring in extra personnel power.

The agreement between the German state government of Thuringia and the Chinese company was made in July this year. CATL has stated their plans to invest about 240 million euros by 2022 in the construction of the battery factory, which is the company’s first outside of China. The planned capacity for the factory is 14 GWh. A first supply contract has also already been struck with a multi-billion euro agreement with BMW.

electrive.net (in German)