China’s CATL will build a €7.3bn battery plant in Hungary, increasing its foothold in Europe and cementing its status as the world’s largest car battery manufacturer. Construction on the factory in the eastern city of Debrecen will start later in 2022, CATL said on Friday. It has planned capacity of 100GWh a year, which would make it the largest “gigafactory” in Europe.
CATL, which supplies batteries to Tesla and Volkswagen among others, did not specify when that target would be reached, but a company filing posted on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange showed that it expected to complete the Hungary factory within five-and-a-half years.
Supplies from the 221-hectare site — CATL’s second in Europe — will be delivered to European carmakers, almost all of which have existing supply deals with the company. Mercedes will initially be the largest single customer.