Ford's Tesla-beating ambition has CATL scouting US locations for EV battery plants in a 670 GWh global capacity push

Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world's largest  electric vehicle battery manufacturer with 35% market share, is looking to bring its production lines closer to its prospective US customers like Ford, reports Reuters. The EV battery maker is currently scouting locations for plants in South Carolina and Kentucky where it will be nearer to current buyers like BMW, or future ones like Ford.

Ford's electrification plans are no less than ambitious as it aims to beat Tesla by becoming America's "true EV leader" with a whopping US$50 billion investment in its Model E electric vehicle spinoff by 2030. Besides CATL, Ford reportedly accelerated its US battery production partnership with SK On for two plants at a total of 43 GWh annual capacity each. BMW, on the other hand, already buys CATL batteries for its EVs, so its prospective investment push in the world's second largest car market would come in handy.

CATL said that it has no less than 390 GWh of capacity gap to close by 2025, thus it needs to drastically expand its production prowess. When mapping the current demand for its electric vehicle batteries and the upcoming onslaught of EV models by most every major legacy carmaker, CATL deduced that it will have to hit 670 GWh global capacity by 2025 in order to meet the industry thirst for its technologies. Not long ago, it spurned an opportunity to develop a solid-state battery technology for NIO as it wanted to focus on production ramp-up and cost controls for its current customer orders before changing its mind and investing in a long-range battery research.

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