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BEIJING, December 21 (TMTPOST)— Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), the No.1 electric vehicle (EV) battery maker across the globe, is pushing to expedite expansion beyond its homeland China.

Source: CATL

Contemporary Amperex Technology Thuringia GmbH (CATT), a plant located in the central German city of Erfurt, has kicked off serial production of lithium-ion battery cells in December as scheduled, according to a CATL statement on Wednesday.

The first batch of cells rolled off the production line in CATT’s G2 building, and all of them passed required tests, proving CALT’s ability to produce and supply cells to its European customers from its local facility, said CATL. The battery maker added the installation and commissioning of remained assembly lines are in full swing for ramp-up.

As CATL"s first plant in Europe as well as the first one outside of China, CATT received the permit from local government in April to become the first company approved to make batteries in Germany. CATL planned to initially achieve the annual capacity of 8 GWh and create 1,500 jobs when the cell production in CATT started. With investment of up to 1.8 billion euros in total, CATL is scheduled to increase the production capacity to 14 GWh and total local jobs created up to 2,000 jobs in the future.

News from the German plant marks another milestone for CATL"s global expansion.

CATL announced in August to invest 7.34 billion euros to build a 100 GWh battery plant in Debrecen of east Hungary, its second battery plant in Europe. The Chinese company expected the Debrecen plant to better cope with the battery demands of the European market, and improve its global production network development, as it noted the project is located at the heart of Europe, and with close proximity to some auto plants of its customers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Stellantis and Volkswagen.

A month later, Matthias Zentgraf, CATL’s regional president in Europe, revealed his company was considering building the third facility to produce electric vehicle-used batteries in Europe, and has not made clear decision or movements on it yet. The battery giant has internal discussions about the new factory while it won’t decide to set up until it sees prospect for the demand volume, according to the official.

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