The world's largest electric vehicle battery manufacturer CATL is considering building a third factory in Europe.
Matthias Zentgraf, president of CATL Europe, said "We are considering this issue, but there is no clear decision or activity", and internal discussions are still ongoing."
CATL announced in August that it plans to build a second European factory in Hungary. It will cooperate with Mercedes-Benz, with an investment scale of about 7.3 billion euros and a planned power battery production capacity of 100GWh, far exceeding the company's 2019 capacity. 1.8 billion euros and a scale of 14GWh to build a factory in Germany. The plant will supply Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, BMW, and Stellantis NV.
CATL said it expects it to be ready within five years.
In addition, CATL signed a pre-purchase agreement in the eastern city of Debrecen, Hungary on September 5, marking the official launch of CATL's second factory in Europe and the Hungarian factory project.
"If there is no future for product demand, we will not build a third plant," Zentgraf said on a video call at the IAA transport conference in Hannover, Germany. However, Zentgraf declined to comment on whether CATL would supply batteries to Tesla's new Berlin factory.
CATL has established several production bases in China and established subsidiaries in the United States, Japan, and Europe. It spent 27 billion yuan on two battery projects in China's Shandong and Fujian provinces.
The battery maker has also been looking for plants in Mexico and the U.S. to supply Tesla, Ford Motor, and others, although that process has been delayed, Bloomberg reported in August.
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