Tesla is facing increasing competition in the EV market, and as a result, the manufacturer plans to spend around $22 billion to expand production capacity and cut costs.
In its article, Portfolio, citing Bloomberg, reports that CATL produces lithium iron phosphate compound batteries that are much cheaper to produce than the nickel-based batteries used and produced in the West. This is a key aspect of Musk’s plan.
Preliminary plans call for the battery plant to be built in Texas to supply the EV assembly plant there. And, similar to Ford’s structure, Tesla would own and operate the factory while licensing the technology from CATL.
As reported in a previous Dehir article, battery production in Europe is also set to take off in a big way in the coming years. Also, according to the Portfolio article, by 2027, “at least 12 countries in Europe will have battery production plants larger than 10 gWh” (France, Spain, the UK, Switzerland and Norway, among others), and as they write, Hungarian plants will account for nearly 15 percent of battery capacity.
The Mayor of Debrecen, László Papp, recently visited the Chinese battery company’s first European plant in Germany. Following the factory visit, László Papp said: “They saw the future of Europe, the model project of Germany’s green transition”. He added that the Arnstadt plant “fits perfectly into the industrial, business and economic environment that surrounds it”.
