China's CATL German plant targets six battery cell production lines by end-2023

[January 26, 2023]  BERLIN (Reuters) - Chinese battery giant CATL is set to install six battery cell production lines by the end of 2023 and hopes to secure approval for 24 gigawatt-hours (GWh of capacity) by June, Matthias Zentgraf, president of CATL Europe, said on Thursday.  

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CATL's 1.8-billion-euro German factory, its first in Europe, sent its first sample battery cells to clients in December 2022.

At current capacity of 14 GWh, the company is targeting output of 30 million cells per year - enough to power around 350,000 electric cars with a 40 kilowatt-hour battery, Zentgraf said at an event at the plant to commemorate the start of production.

Construction of the Chinese battery maker's plant in Thueringia, Germany, began in 2019, with the first battery modules using cells made in China delivered in the third quarter of 2021.

A second European plant in Europe, to be the continent's largest at 100 GWh, is in planning phase but construction should start in the second half of the year, Zentgraf said, with the aim of beginning production within two to three years.

(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Writing by Miranda Murray; Editing by Madeline Chambers)

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