Chinese lithium giant Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) has revealed it is set to pour a total of up to €1.8 billion (US$2.1bn) of cash into its planned electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in Germany.
CATL said the proposed investment included €240 million already pledged for the project at Erfurt, in the east-central state of Thüringen.
The ramped up investment pledge is needed to meet market demand and “further deepen the company’s globalisation strategy”, CATL said in a Shenzhen Stock Exchange filing. The total investment would include land acquisition, construction, equipment purchases and installation costs.
Construction of the battery manufacturing and R&D plant is estimated to take “no more than 60 months”. The facility will span some 70 hectares.
The company said it had already been working on the project— setting up a management team and conducting other preliminary activities such as the design of the facility.
However, CATL said the investment still required various regulatory approvals in China— and planning permission from German authorities.
The federal German state of Thüringen told BEST Battery Briefing previously it would invest €7.5m in the CATL project— using regional economic aid provided by the national government.
The Erfurt plant expects production capacity to be 14GWh annually— providing batteries for companies including BMW, Volkswagen, Daimler, Jaguar Land Rover and PSA.
