CATL, new battery factory in Hungary worth over 7 billion euros

CATL continues with its expansion plan by announcing an investment of 7.34 billion euros for the construction of his second battery factory in Europe (the first is in Germany). It will be built in Debrecen, Hungary. Construction of the new plant is expected to begin by the end of the year. Once fully operational, this new plant will have an annual production capacity of 100 GWh. A timeline for the start of production has not been communicated.

The Chinese company says that the site for the new factory was chosen as it is located near the plants of some of its important customers such as BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Stellantis. The factory will therefore make it possible to expand the availability of cells for the European market at a time when the demand for electric cars is destined to rise.

As part of its commitment to reduce the carbon footprint in battery manufacturing, CATL will use electricity from renewable sources. The new project has obviously been well received by CATL’s European customers. In particular, Mercedes wanted to underline the importance of the new factory for its electrification strategy.

This new site will supply the cells which will then be sent to the Mercedes plants located in Germany and Hungary. The plant will therefore build the battery cells for the next generation Mercedes models. In addition, the German carmaker will be the first partner to receive cells from the Hungarian plant with the largest initial order in terms of volume.

Thanks to the CATL factory, Mercedes is approaching its 2030 target of having an annual capacity of 200 GWh of batteries at 8 production sites. Robin Zengfounder and president of CATL, commented:

There is no doubt that our Debrecen plant will allow us to further expand our competitive advantage, better respond to the needs of our European customers and accelerate the transition to electric mobility in Europe.