ARNSTADT (dpa-AFX) - Short distances: until now, many battery cells for German e-cars have come by ship from China - now the Chinese battery giant CATL is also supplying its batteries from the middle of Germany. In Arnstadt, Thuringia, CATL started up its first factory in Europe on Thursday for up to 30 million battery cells annually.

The Chinese group is considered one of the largest cell producers in the world. The factory marks its foray into Germany in the production of one of the most important components for electric vehicles. German automakers also have large-scale battery projects and plan to invest billions, but they are still far from commissioning.

"Here we have a gigafactory the likes of which have not been seen in all of Western Europe," said Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left Party). Experts also speak of a giant factory for lithium-ion cells that CATL is currently ramping up. Up to 1.8 billion euros are being poured into the project, said CATL European President Matthias Zentgraf. "This will be the first high-volume cell production in Western Europe." European automakers are to be supplied; BMW, for example, says it is a customer. BMW will then use the cells to manufacture batteries itself, for example in Dingolfing and Munich.

The mighty hall with solar panels on the roof, where the first production line for cells is located, is about half a kilometer long. Another five are to follow in the coming months, according to Zentgraf. 400 specialists from China alone have been flown in to ramp up the plant along with their German colleagues, who number about 600 so far. In the logistically well-located Erfurter Kreuz industrial park, Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd. (CATL/Ningde) reserved around 70 hectares back in 2018. Because of Corona a few months later than planned, the international team manufactured the first cells under series conditions shortly before Christmas 2022. Zentgraf expects the regular start of series production in mid-2023. 1800 to 2000 jobs are to be created by the end of the year - personnel are still being sought in abundance.

The plant is initially designed for a capacity of 14 gigawatt hours, which is expected to be reached early next year, Zentgraf said. This would allow for an annual production of about 30 million cells, he said. "This will allow 185,000 to 350,000 electric cars to be equipped, depending on the size of the batteries." Permits for up to 24 gigawatt hours are expected - used depending on the cell needs of the automotive industry, he said. Another plant is planned in Hungary, he said.

And what is the German auto industry doing? In addition to foreign projects, Volkswagen has been building its first own battery cell plant in Germany in Salzgitter since summer 2022. Mercedes-Benz, together with various partners worldwide, is planning to build several cell factories by 2030, with a total production capacity of 200 gigawatt hours. Nine Mercedes factories, including one in Kölleda, Thuringia, will assemble batteries from the cells. Opel parent Stellantis is also partnering, with three factories, including one in Kaiserslautern, scheduled to start in 2025.

"The battery cell production plant in Arnstadt is an important part of the electromobility cluster in Germany - the opening a very welcome development that must also be pushed forward with additional locations," a spokesman for the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) said when asked. In order to attract more plants, Berlin and Brussels would have to "bring the location conditions back up to a top global level."

Concerns about the future China strategy of the German government and the EU were also voiced at the CATL plant opening. The CATL project is a new kind of cooperation, said Thuringia's Economics Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee (SPD). "The Chinese are bringing their technology to Europe," he said. Not far from the plant, Thuringia is pulling up a battery research center - "joint research is being done there," he said. He hopes that the discord in the debate about a new China strategy "is only a temporary phenomenon," Zentgraf said./red/DP/jha