The car manufacturer Stellantis and the Chinese battery giant CATL are investing several billion euros in a joint venture Battery cell plant in Spain. A joint venture is to build a new battery factory for lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells at the Stellantis site in Zaragoza. The companies are investing up to 4.1 billion euros for this, as they announced on Tuesday. Production is scheduled to start at the end of 2026. The factory could achieve up to 50 gigawatt hours (GWh) of battery capacity annually in several expansion steps, it said. The companies signed a declaration of intent just over a year ago.
“This important joint venture with our partner CATL brings innovative battery production to a production site that is already a leader in clean and renewable energy,” said John Elkann (48), Chairman of the Stellantis Board of Directors.
Stellantis wants to use the batteries to equip cars and SUVs in the so-called B and C segments – i.e. the small and compact classes – with medium ranges. LFP batteries compete with the lithium-ion cells conventional in car batteries: They are considered safer and cheaper to produce and are said to last longer, but have a lower energy density.
Recently, battery cell production in Europe’s automotive industry had to cope with some setbacks. For example, the factory planned in this country by Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and the energy company Total a construction stop was imposed. The project at the Opel site in Kaiserslautern is already being supported with hundreds of millions of euros in tax money. About the battery cell disaster in Europe’s auto industry read here
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50 gigawatt hours of battery capacity from the factory would be used for over 900,000 model cars Opel Mokka Electric with a battery capacity of 54 kilowatt hours (kWh) each. The joint venture will be owned equally by Stellantis and CATL. The deal is expected to close during 2025.