Photo: CATL
Tesla battery supplier, CATL, has confirmed that it has signed documents with the Shanghai government to build a new manufacturing facility. The battery plant will be built near the Californian manufacturer's automobile factory in China—Giga Shanghai.
The recent rumor that Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Limited (CATL) wants to build a new battery plant in close proximity to Tesla's Shanghai factory turned out to be true. On August 18, CATL and Sichuan Development Holding Co signed a strategic cooperation agreement in Chengdu to cooperate in the areas of energy storage, charging and switching facilities, aerospace power research and development, upstream materials integration, intelligent mining and extraction, parts supply, and commercial vehicle electrification.
Official details of the construction schedule and production capacity are not provided. According to earlier rumors, the annual capacity could be 80 GWh. CATL has confirmed through its WeChat account that it has signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the Shanghai government to build a high-performance manufacturing base.
The new CATL plant will be built in the Lin-gang Special Area, an industrial park operated by the Lingang Group. Tesla's Chinese factory—Giga Shanghai—is also located there. CATL is the main supplier of Tesla battery cells in China. While building a new battery plant there does not necessarily mean that it will supply Tesla directly from that plant, the goal of building a facility at this location seems to make a lot of sense.
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