e s sounds once surprisingly: The Chinese group CATL is investing 240 million euros in a highly modern car battery factory in Thuringia. Thuringia – that was this low-wage country, you have to drive through, if you want to go from Berlin to Munich. So why are the Chinese now building the heart of the cars of the future in Thuringia?
One reason is the location: Thuringia is located in the middle of Germany. For the BMW plant in Dingolfing near Munich it is four hours on the road, to the battery factory of Daimler in Kamenz (Saxony) three. BMW has already confirmed that the CATL batteries from Thuringia will power some of its electric car models. The battery cells, which the Munich residents of Thuringia want to buy, have a total value of 1.5 billion euros. The Chinese are also talking to Daimler.
But CATL is also looking towards Wolfsburg. VW should eventually for the Chinese-Thuringian batteries If you are interested, the journey from Erfurt to Wolfsburg would take three hours. If you wanted to draw a circle to go through Dingolfing, Kamenz and Wolfsburg, you would have to stab the circle pretty much in Erfurt.
Thuringian research landscape
Another location factor is the education and research landscape in Thuringia. According to the Thuringian State Development Corporation (LEG), the state is at the leading edge when it comes to the proportion of graduates in the major subjects of mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology, the so-called MINT subjects. 40 percent of graduates in Thuringia graduate in MINT subjects. In Germany, the proportion is 35 percent. According to the Bildungsmonitor 2017, Thuringia ranks second behind Saxony in terms of share of engineering graduates in all university graduates. The country has to offer the engineers who need such a battery factory.
It is also only 30 kilometers to the Technical University of Ilmenau and 60 kilometers to the University of Jena from the Erfurter Kreuz business park, the location of the planned Chinese battery factory. Both are locations of Fraunhofer Institutes. The location in Ilmenau has a research focus on e-mobility. Ilmenau is also home to the Thuringian Innovation Center for Mobility, which focuses on hybrid drive concepts. The universities in Weimar and Erfurt are even closer.
So the factory will not be in an electric car vacuum. Thuringia’s Minister of Economic Affairs Wolfgang Tiefensee Instead, according to news agency dpa, it emphasizes that the factory will be involved in the research landscape. Therefore, the new location should not only produce but also conduct research.
The policy also helps
Location and know-how are important factors for companies. But they do not just settle down like that. Instead, countries and regions must also promote themselves. In the case of CATL, the federal economic development company Germany Trade and Invest and the state-owned state development company Thuringia negotiated with the Chinese. Tiefensee praises their work: The swift action was the decisive factor for the decision for Thuringia.
On top of that, the Chinese can look forward to receiving EU funding for regional economic development. The company receives 7.5 million euros, according to news agency dpa. But the final rash might have been German policy. Tiefensee made the battery factory a top priority and traveled to China to promote the location. His advances have obviously helped.