Shanghai (ZXZC)- On Sept. 6, CATL broke ground on the first phase of its new energy battery industrial base in Xiamen city, Fujian province, the battery giant said via its twitter-like Weibo account, indicating a new progress in CATL's expansion of its battery capacity.

The latest ground-breaking came after CATL's board of directors approved in April this year a proposal to build a battery industrial base in Xiamen, where power battery and energy storage battery production lines would be built. Involving a total investment of 13 billion yuan ($1.867 billion), the project is set to be completed in no more than 26 months after ground-breaking.

Photo credit: CATL

Aside from the aforesaid project, CATL started construction of a new-type lithium ion battery production base's first phase in December 2021, which is located at Xiamen Torch Development Zone for High Technology Industries.

The battery titan is stepping up investment in its business development in Xiamen. In August last year, it set up a wholly-owned subsidiary, Contemporary Amperex Energy Service Technology Ltd. (“CAES”), in the city to manage its EVOGO battery swap service and operations. In November 2021, CATL teamed up with Xiamen University to inaugurate Xiamen CATL New Energy Research Institute.