On April 4, Contemporary Amperex Technology Thuringia GmbH CATT CATL's first plant outside of China, was granted the second partial approval for battery cell production from the government of Thuringia, a state in east-central Germany, according to a post on CATL's WeChat account.

The latest move allows an initial capacity of 8 GWh per year for CATL's Thuringian plant, representing a significant milestone for the company's global footprint expansion.

CATT; photo credit: CATL

The construction of the plant, which is also Germany's first battery plant, is in its first phase. The machine installation at the factory is well underway, so as to make sure that the first cells can come off the production line by the end of 2022.

CATT is composed of two parts: G1 is the existing facilities bought from other companies and will be used to assemble cells into modules; G2 is a newly-built plant focusing on cell production. The permit recently issued is for the cell production of G2.

With strict requirements for clean rooms, technical cleanliness and constant humidity, CATL's Germany-based plant is almost as complex as a chip factory, said Matthias Zentgraf, CATL's President for Europe. He added that part of the power for the plant is sourced from the solar power panels on rooftops, in a bid to achieve a sustainable cell production.

CATL broke ground at its German factory in 2019 and the plant is scheduled to start production at the end of 2022, when 1,500 new jobs will be created.

Involving a total investment of 1.8 billion euro, CATT is designed to feature a total production capacity of 14GWh and offer 2,000 jobs to local residents in the future.