Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), China's leading supplier of batteries for electric vehicles (EV), will build a factory in the state of Thuringia in central Germany in order to supply local automakers, according to a Reuters report.
The news follows an announcement by German automaker BMW that it had signed a contract with CATL worth $1.16 billion to buy lithium-ion cells from the Chinese company.
Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, also recently signed a contract with CATL for an undisclosed amount to procure EV batteries, the report said.
CATL is the world's leading supplier of lithium-ion batteries, with shipments totaling 12 gigawatt hours in 2017.
