Following CATL's latest announcement, the list of planned gigawatt-scale battery factories in Europe continues to grow. The Chinese lithium-ion battery maker revealed plans to invest 7.34 billion euros to build a 100GWh battery plant in Debrecan, Hungary, the largest greenfield investment in the country's history.

Construction of the first production facilities will begin later this year, subject to shareholder approval. CATL said the planned facility, covering 221 hectares in the southern industrial park of Debrecen, will help accelerate the electric vehicle and energy transition in Europe. It will supply batteries and modules to European automakers, including existing customers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Stellantis and Volkswagen.

CATL said it was considering developing solar projects with local partners in the country. CATL also aims to build a sustainable and circular battery value chain by studying the possibility of joining forces with local partners to build battery materials facilities in Europe. It is currently working on building a much smaller factory in Germany, its first outside of China. CATL has a total investment of 1.8 billion euros and plans to achieve a production capacity of 14GWh. It broke ground in 2019 at its plant in Arnstadt, Germany. Production of the batteries is planned to start by the end of 2022.

Robin Zeng, founder and chairman of CATL, said: "There is no doubt that our factory in Debrecen will allow us to further enhance our competitive advantage, be more responsive to our European customers and accelerate Europe's transition to electric mobility. . Keywords: engineering news, overseas news

Europe will have about 35 gigafactories by 2035, according to some latest forecasts, as part of its strategic effort to reduce its reliance on Asian battery imports. Large-scale construction and expansion of battery capacity are currently being planned, according to the EU's Vital European Common Interest Projects Fund.Editor/XingWentao