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Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free<\/p>\n
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.<\/span><\/p>\n CATL is ready to assist European battery makers and contribute to building up a regional industry hub as the Chinese giant bets on strong growth in the continent\u2019s EV market.<\/p>\n Matt Shen, CATL\u2019s general manager for Europe, said local battery makers needed help to overcome the high production costs and supply chain challenges in the region, which have hampered their efforts to manufacture at scale at competitive prices.<\/p>\n \u201cThe [European] market is big enough\u201d to support multiple battery manufacturers, Shen said. <\/p>\n Although Beijing has placed restrictions on technology and equipment sharing around advanced battery production, \u201cwe need to work together to finally make this [electric] transition possible\u201d, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The world\u2019s largest EV battery manufacturer has been rapidly expanding its share in the European market, which rose to 45 per cent from 37 per cent last year, according to JPMorgan.\u00a0<\/p>\n Its global share was at 37 per cent in first seven months of the year, compared with 18 per cent for BYD, according to South Korea\u2019s SNE Research.<\/p>\n Europe has struggled to build an independent battery industry with Northvolt filing for bankruptcy in March. That has strengthened concerns about the continent\u2019s heavy reliance on China for a critical technology that is key to driving the energy transition.<\/p>\n Shen said the company remained optimistic about the speed of the electric transition in Europe even as the car industry has called for more flexibility on the EU\u2019s 2035 ban on petrol engines. <\/p>\n In the first seven months of the year, battery electric cars accounted for 15.6 per cent of the EU market share on the back of an increased offering of more affordable EV models, compared with 12.5 per cent last year, according to European car industry body Acea.<\/p>\n CATL unveiled two new battery products tailored for the European market on the sidelines of last week\u2019s Munich motor show including one that promises a 758km range and a 12-year lifespan and another that can add a range 410km in 20 minutes even under extremely cold weather conditions. <\/p>\n The group also plans to bring its battery-swapping and recycling technology to Europe. <\/p>\n The Chinese group has invested more than \u20ac11bn in Europe, expanding its local manufacturing footprint in Germany and Hungary. It is also building a new plant with Stellantis in Spain, which is expected to start operations by the end of next year.<\/p>\n The Chinese government has said it would restrict sharing of knowhow and equipment on highly advanced lithium iron phosphate batteries with foreign companies. However, implementation of these restrictions remains unclear. <\/p>\n Shen said CATL was open to discussing joint ventures not only with other carmakers but also with battery makers such as France\u2019s Automotive Cells Company, a joint venture between Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and TotalEnergies.\u00a0<\/p>\n While many companies were continuing with their plans to build their battery manufacturing plants in Europe, he acknowledged that CATL and others were facing a shortage of skilled workers, high energy costs and supply chain constraints. <\/p>\n \u201cThe overall cost is very high\u201d to produce batteries in Europe, Shen said. \u201cEverybody has similar problems so that\u2019s why we want to co-operate with everybody.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n CATL has previously said it is flexible in how it approaches overseas growth. <\/p>\n In the US, where protectionism, anti-China sentiment and security concerns has led to an effective ban on new Chinese cleantech manufacturing, the group has instead licensed its battery manufacturing technology to Ford and Elon Musk\u2019s Tesla.<\/p>\n Brussels is also increasingly seeking the transfer of skills and knowhow from Chinese companies setting up batteries and other joint ventures in Europe.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, the bosses of Germany\u2019s PowerCo, ACC and Verkor called on European policymakers to provide new funds to support local production, warning that the continent \u201crisks losing its strategic autonomy in a critical 21st-century technology\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. CATL is ready to assist European battery makers and contribute to building up a regional industry hub as the Chinese giant bets on strong growth in the continent\u2019s EV market. Matt Shen, CATL\u2019s general manager<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[651,14004,2153,1223,715,14005],"class_list":{"0":"post-22858","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-battery","9":"tag-catl","10":"tag-china","11":"tag-controls","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-startups"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22858\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}