Groundbreaking ceremony for CATL’s 50 GWh battery production facility in Yichun, China

Battery titan CATL announced via its WeChat account that it broke ground on a new lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility on Oct. 28.

A total of 13.5 billion yuan ($2.112 billion) is being invested in the Yichun battery project, which is expected to produce 50GWh of new-type lithium-ion batteries annually.

According to CATL, the new battery factory will play a vital role in the company’s global strategic deployment and contribute to the development of a green value chain integrating lithium resources, lithium battery materials, power batteries, and electric vehicles in Yichun.

Yichun municipal government and Jiangxi provincial government signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement in July with the Ningde-based battery maker to begin the construction of the project.

The company announced in mid-September that it would invest 13.5 billion yuan into the construction of a new-type lithium-ion battery manufacturing base in Yichun.

Around 2.5 million tons of proven lithium oxide can be found in Yuchun, making it one of the world’s largest reserves of lepidolite, the world’s most abundant lithium mineral.

Gotion High-Tech, another major Chinese supplier of automotive lithium-ion batteries, laid the foundation stone late in May for its own lithium-ion battery project in the city, which is scheduled to go into operation in 2022.

Source: CATL