Contemporary Amperex Technology Thuringia GmbH (CATT), CATL’s first plant outside of China, has begun serial production of lithium-ion battery cells in December as scheduled.

The first batch of lithium-ion battery cells rolled off the newly installed production line under series condition in CATT’s G2 building. The installation and commissioning of the remaining lines are in full swing for the production ramp-up.

The locally produced cells passed all tests that are required of CATL’s products globally, which shows CATL is capable of starting cell production and supplying cells to its European customers from its local plant.

CATT received the permit for battery cell production from the state of Thuringia this April, which allows an initial capacity of 8 GWh per year. The plant has already started module production in its G1 building in Q3 2021.

With a total investment of up to €1.8 billion, CATL plans to achieve a production capacity of 14GWh and create up to 2,000 new jobs in total within Germany in the future.