Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) is betting on two specially designed battery packs to win over customers in Europe, as the world’s largest maker of power sources for electric vehicles (EVs) counts down to flicking the on switch at its plant in Hungary in December.
The first pack is a long-life variant that is usable for up to 12 years, offering 758km (471 miles) of driving range, CATL said in a statement on Sunday. The second variant is a fast-charging lithium-ion phosphate (LFP) power pack that needs just 10 minutes of charging to drive up to 478km, CATL said.
The two battery variants show how CATL is doubling down on its technology to become the go-to supplier for European carmakers such as BMW and Volkswagen, as it provides them with tailor-made power sources to compete with BYD’s proprietary blade batteries.
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“The product launches represent an active response to the urgent demand for electrification in the European market,” CATL said. “We are determined to help accelerate the transition into green transport around the globe.”
The two battery types are expected to roll out of CATL’s €7.3 billion (US$8.6 billion) factory in Debrecen, the second-largest city in Hungary. The plant has 100 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of production capacity, enough to power 2 million EVs, each with a driving range of 500km. Production is scheduled to start at the end of this year.
Debrecen is CATL’s second production facility in Europe since the Fujian province-based company’s factory in Germany’s Thuringia state began production in 2023 with 14GWh of capacity.
“CATL is sending a message to the European market that it will design more products to cater to their demands,” said Davis Zhang, a senior executive at Suzhou Hazardtex, a supplier of specialised batteries. “Some of the products require R&D efforts to fit in with the European EVs.”
CATL’s long-life battery pack had been optimised for low temperatures, the company said, a plus for convincing customers in markets with particularly harsh winters to ditch their petrol guzzlers for EVs.
People visit a booth of Contemporary Amperex Technology during the 2023 International Motor Show in Munich on September 5, 2023. Photo: Xinhua alt=People visit a booth of Contemporary Amperex Technology during the 2023 International Motor Show in Munich on September 5, 2023. Photo: Xinhua>
CATL’s battery installation volume between January and July jumped 34 per cent from a year earlier to 221.4GWh. It held a 37.5 per cent share of the global market in the same period, according to Seoul-based SNE Research.
Sales outside mainland China account for about 30 per cent of CATL’s global total, and the company, which completed a US$5.22 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong in May, said in the fundraising prospectus that the proceeds would be used to replenish the construction of factories abroad.
Chinese-made batteries enjoyed an overwhelming production and technological advantage over their international rivals, buoyed by surging adoption of electric cars on the mainland, according to Zhang.
Chinese EV battery makers led by CATL control more than 70 per cent of the global market, according to Paul Gong, head of China automotive research at UBS.
CATL, whose clients also include Tesla and Fiat owner Stellantis, said in April that it would begin mass production of its Naxtra sodium-ion battery this year, which has an energy density nearly as high as the LFP units with cheaper production costs.
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