According to foreign media reports, a battery factory owned by CATL and located in Germany was put into operation on January 26. It is worth mentioning that this is the first factory owned by CATL outside of China.
It is reported that until now, many batteries for electric vehicles produced in Germany are shipped from China by sea. After CATL's German factory is put into operation, it can directly supply German car companies with its basis in central Germany. Matthias Zentgraf, President of CATL Europe, said that up to 1.8 billion euros (about 13.2 billion yuan) were invested into the project, "This is the first large-scale production of batteries in Western Europe." CATL's German factory will be able to produce 30 million power batteries per year at the beginning, which can meet the needs of 185,000 to 350,000 electric vehicles by then. At present, CATL is applying to increase the designed capacity by another 70%.
In addition, CATL is building a larger factory in Hungary, which will complement the German factory in the future. According to the latest research of Soochow Securities, CATL’s overseas installed capacity exceeded 40 GWh (SNE, certification caliber) from January to November 2022. The annual installed capacity is expected to be around 50 GWh, an increase of nearly 200%, and the shipment is expected to be 60 GWh. Europe is the main market. It is estimated that CATL’s shipment in Europe has reached 35-40 GWh in 2022, with a share of 25%-30%. It is the main supplier for BMW and PSA, and it is also an important supplier for Volkswagen, Hyundai, Daimler, etc. In 2023, the company’s overseas shipments are expected to maintain a 40% increase to more than 80 GWh, of which the European market share will further increase to 30%-35%.
According to data from the China Power Battery Industry Innovation Alliance of Electric Vehicles, in 2022, the cumulative installed capacity of power batteries in China was 294.6 GWh, an increase of 90.7% year-on-year. Among them, the installed capacity of CATL batteries reached 142.02 GWh, indicating a market share of 48.2% and still ranking first among all battery makers in China.
