Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd, known as CATL, is much sought after stock option for investors betting on the future of electric vehicles (EVs) and energy transition.
Established 10 years ago, the battery maker has grown into the third-most-valuable publicly traded company in China, behind national liquor maker Kweichow Moutai and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.
On Dec 30, CATL announced to invest another 24 billion in Yibin battery expansion project, building seven to ten manufacturing bases.
On December 28, CATL signed the “Sichuan Times Phase VII to X Project Investment Agreement” with the Management Committee of Yibin Sanjiang New Area in Chengdu. Ningde Times will further improve the production capacity layout on the basis of the original six phases of the project and invest in the construction of the power battery Yibin manufacturing base seven to ten phases in Yibin Sanjiang New Area.
YIbin’s geographical advantage helps with logistics and carbon neutral goals
SIchuan Yibin is one of the ten battery production bases for CATL. According to the previous announcement, CATL signed one to six phases of Sichuan Times power battery projects with Yibin City since 2019, with a total investment of about 32 billion yuan and an area of about 3,000 mu.
In June this year, the first phase of Yibin base project was officially put into operation. After this additional investment, the investment scale of CATL in Yibin production base will reach 56 billion yuan.
With convenient transportation, the project is completed after the logistics time will be within 3 hours, the power battery can appear in Chengdu or Chongqing vehicle factory production line.
Yibin has abundant water resources, can realize the production and manufacturing of emission reduction requirements, to achieve the power battery life cycle of carbon neutral.
Previously, CATL has also said that Sichuan is an important base for the western automotive industry and has a broad consumer market, strong industrial base and strong technological innovation capability in the automotive field.
