The Chinese joint venture brand of German car giant BMW, BMW Brilliance, is reportedly to open a “high-voltage automotive battery pack production centre” in China on 24 October.
According to Chinese media reports, BMW’s long-term Chinese lithium-ion battery supplier Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) will supply cells for the project.
The Chinese partner in the BMW Brilliance joint venture is carmaker Brilliance Auto.
BMW Brilliance CEO and managing director Dr. Johann Wieland, told China’s state Xinhua News Agency the joint venture would assemble the battery packs at the site of its headquarters in Shenyang.
BBB could not contact BMW Brilliance for comment. However, it was widely reported in the Chinese media that BMW Brilliance would continue its “close relationship” with CATL.
BMW Brilliance’s factory site is reportedly capable of producing 33,000 sets of battery packs per year, and the “high-voltage” batteries will be used in the new BMW 530LeiPerformance hybrid vehicles, according to China’s Sina.
Earlier this year, CATL’s Europe region chief, Matthias Zentgraf said the company had become “the world’s third largest battery supplier”, providing lithium-ion technology to big European automakers’ such as BMW, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz, which recently built a new electric vehicles and batteries plant in Beijing with BAIC.
Zentgraf also said CATL is developing a ‘green lithium-ion industry’ through the use of EV batteries for energy storage and the acquisition of “the biggest” Chinese Li-ion battery recycler Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology.
