Hyperdrive
Europe Floors It in the Race to Dominate Car Batteries
Asia has had a good head start, but the EU is determined to catch up.
Contemporary Amperex Technology expanding its factory in Arnstadt, Germany, on Oct. 29, 2019.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Outside the German town of Arnstadt, workers for China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) are hustling to build Europe’s biggest electric-car battery plant.
The site, which covers an area equivalent to about 100 football fields, previously housed one of the continent’s largest solar-panel factories. During a visit in October, wooden crates filled with surplus equipment were stacked up outside the metal-clad structure to make way for car-battery-making equipment. Roaring bulldozers swarmed a nearby lot to prep for construction of a new building.