Chinese battery maker CATL’s new plant in Hungary is expected to start production by early next year, its general manager for Europe said on Sunday, as the company looks to the region for growth, reports Reuters. CATL invested €7.3 billion ($8.55 billion) in the plant in the eastern city of Debrecen, seeking to expand battery production in Europe for automakers such as BMW, Stellantis and Volkswagen.
The new site would dwarf CATL’s existing European battery production facility in the German state of Thuringia, with a planned annual production capacity of 100 gigawatt-hours and a 9,000-strong workforce.
CATL’s general manager for Europe Matt Shen told Reuters the current goal was to start production at Decrecen “at the end of this year or beginning of the next year, so the next four, five months”.