Shanghai (ZXZC)- On May 30, CATL held a ceremony to celebrate the start of production at its power battery factory in Zhaoqing city, Guangdong province, the battery giant announced via its WeChat account.

Located in Zhaoqing High Technology Industry Development Zone, the project is managed by Guangdong Ruiqing Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (“Ruiqing CATL”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CATL.

Photo credit: CATL

CATL broke ground at the Zhaoqing production base (Phase I) on March 28, 2021, marking the official launch of its EV battery and energy storage battery project in the city. It took the company only 6 months to achieve the “topping out” milestone for the 500,000-square-meter factory and 8 months to commence the installation of the first batch of manufacturing facilities.

On February 2, 2021, CATL signed cooperation framework agreements with the Guangdong Provincial Government and Zhaoqing Municipal Government. Under the agreements, CATL would invest 12 billion yuan ($1.799 billion) in Phase I to build a lithium-ion battery production base with an annual capacity of 25 GWh in Zhaoqing. The whole-process industrial chains from battery cell production to battery system assembly would be established in the factory.

After CATL's Zhaoqing Project is completed, the products would be first supplied to enterprises in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, according to the press release CATL issued after the ground-breaking event.