CATL plans to plow up to 29 billion yuan in three battery manufacturing bases

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On February 2, CATL announced it will invest up to 29 billion yuan ($4.488 billion) in capacity expansion.

According to a filing with Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the power battery giant will pump no more than 12 billion yuan ($1.857 billion) in a production base for power and energy-storage batteries in Zhaoqing, Guangdong province.

Photo credit: CATL

The Zhaoqing project is the main part under the strategic cooperation framework agreement CATL signed with Guangdong provincial government on the same day. With a planned capacity of 25GWh for the first phase, the base aims to form an industrial chain covering power battery cell, materials for lithium battery, energy-storage application, battery recycling, new energy vehicle, driving motor and electric control unit.

The company will also plow up to 12 billion yuan ($1.857 billion) in the fifth and sixth phases of the power battery manufacturing base in Yibin, Sichuan province.

Moreover, CATL plans to invest up to 5 billion yuan ($773.85 million) in the capacity expansion project for the power battery production line of a joint venture between CATL and FAW Group in Xiapu county of Ningde, Fujian province.

These announcements came after CATL claimed at the end of Dec. 2020 it would pump at most 39 billion yuan ($6.036 billion) in the capacity expansion projects in Yibin of Sichuan province and Liyang of Jiangsu province, as well as a new lithium ion battery manufacturing base in Fuding of Fujian province.  

CATL said it will strive to construct 150GWh per year in lithium battery capacity and build supporting industries by 2030.