On Tuesday, CATL’s Vice Chairman Pan Jian announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos that CATL will unveil a new EV battery plant joint venture in Europe with a local automaker.
“We expect to announce new joint venture factory projects with other OEMs in Europe this year,” Pan said, according to Interface News. No more details on the upcoming plant were disclosed.
In December 2024, CATL announced a joint venture EV battery plant with Stellantis in Spain. Both companies will invest 4.1 billion EUR into a new plant that will produce lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for vehicles from the Stellantis group. The plant’s annual production is up to 50 GWh of battery capacity.
CATL currently has three battery projects in the European Union (EU), including the one in Spain. The other two are battery plants in Germany and another in Hungary, both already in operation, according to CATL.
“The uncertainty of the US market makes the European market so important for not only Chinese EV makers but battery manufacturers as well,” says Tu Le, managing director of Sino Auto Insights. “Especially as the risk of a slowdown in the China market in 2025 looms large,” Le adds.
CATL is the largest battery maker in China and globally. The company installed 246.01 GWh of batteries in China in 2024, up 47.2% from 2023. CATL has a 45.5% market share in China, according to data monitored by China EV DataTracker.
Pan did not hint at which European automaker it might be, so we can only guess. There are a few options: Renault or one of the German trio Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Volkswagen. In April last year, CATL became the world’s first battery manufacturer to receive certification from Volkswagen for module testing, so my wild guess is that it might be VW.