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Bloomberg
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), the world’s biggest manufacturer of electric-vehicle batteries, is scouting sites for a new $5 billion battery plant in North America. It’s considering locations in Mexico, Canada, and the US for an 80 gigawatt-hour plant that would supply Tesla and other EV makers, according to people familiar with the project.
The conventional wisdom is that China, with its state-led economic planning, has outflanked the US in a global chess game that has put the latter’s economic, energy and national security at risk. CATL, which has risen rapidly to become the global battery leader with the help of state backing, is the poster child for that strategy.
So how are people in the US battery world reacting to its potential arrival?
Jim Greenberger, the executive director of NAATBatt International, a trade group that advocates for battery development and manufacturing in the US, said he has no objection to a CATL plant in North America, so long as the company brings battery manufacturing technology and know-how to the US, not just low-wage assembly jobs. The US should mimic China’s joint ventures with western businesses.
“The principle would be largely the same: we’ll give you market access, and in exchange, you have to transfer tech to us and our people,†he said. Chamberlain is in favour of CATL putting stakes in the ground in the US, for several reasons.