CATL is adding two new factories to its previously announced six, according to local media firm LatePost.
The two new factories will be in addition to CATL’s plans for six overseas factories already announced: Germany, Thailand, Hungary, Indonesia, and two in the US (with Ford and Tesla).
According to the post, CATL’s next plant will be in Spain as a joint venture with Stellantis. It’s also considering a fully owned battery cathode materials facility in Morocco, which would supply its European battery plants.
A new EV battery that can add 370 miles (600 km) range in 10 minutes? China’s CATL introduced its new Shenxing Plus EV battery, capable of just that. CATL claims the new EV battery is the world’s first with 4C ultra-fast charging and +620 miles (1,000 km) CLTC range.
The EV battery giant dominates the industry after leading again in 2023 for the seventh straight year.
despite the fact that the company controls nearly two-fifths of the world’s EV battery market – and has powered cars made by brands including Tesla, Volkswagen and BMW – it has long flown under the radar of US politics. Until now.
In February, Duke Energy, a US energy company that serves more than 8 million customers, said it was phasing out the use of CATL batteries. Duke said it would replace the CATL products with technology from a “domestic or allied nation supplier”.
*Ford has also come under fire for doing business with CATL. A deal between the two companies to build a factory in Michigan to produce low-cost lithium iron phosphate batteries for EVs using CATL technology has repeatedly been questioned by US lawmakers. * In November, Ford scaled down its plans for the plant, reducing its capacity by about 40%.
“This is new,” says Tu Le, the founder of Sino Auto Insights, a consultancy, of the recent scrutiny on CATL. “This is not something that had been talked about or discussed by the US government. There were never any concerns before.”
Le says there is an increasing pressure on US companies not to use any Chinese batteries, “but if the US is going to be competitive on the global stage with EVs, through 2030 they’re going to have to use Chinese batteries”.
Regardless, experts agree there is no clear roadmap for the US to decarbonise its streets without cheap Chinese EV batteries – most likely from CATL or its main rival, BYD.
Michael Dunne, the founder of Dunne Insights, an EV consultancy, says the US is “years behind when it comes to batteries, battery supply chains, critical minerals. This is where our cupboard is bare.”
Between 2022 and 2023, Chinese overseas investment in the EV supply chain in north America decreased from $4.8bn to $2.7bn, according to Rhodium, “driven by regulatory uncertainty and fears over political backlash”.
Is the US economic war upon China a needlessly self-destructive overreaction to a problem?
It seems to me that the war upon global warming and conversion of the US auto fleet to EVs is severely damaged by this war.
Of course GM & Ford benefit from a breathing space. But who else is helped by this war?