Founded only in 2011, CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology) is already one of the leading battery suppliers to electric car manufacturers in China. With ambitions to become the industry's largest battery manufacturer worldwide, they are planning a battery production facility to be based in Thuringia in central Germany.

Earlier this year the car parts manufacturer Bosch decided against building a home-grown lithium-ion battery production facility in Germany because it was projected that production costs would make the batteries uncompetitive. It is interesting that a Far-East battery manufacturer is willingly to invest several hundred million Euros to build a battery production facility in the EU thereby providing around 1000 jobs.

It could well turn out to be a shrewd investment, even in a high-wage country like Germany, rechargeable battery materials are becoming less expensive and highly-automated production processes help offset the relatively high labour costs. To comply with EU greenhouse gas targets, manufacturers are obliged, in the near future, to switch to engines that do not burn fossil fuels. Building a battery production facility close to car manufacturing plants will allow better customer relationships to be established and give advantages in reduced shipping costs, product lead times and simplification of customs procedures.