China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) is looking for sites for a $5 billion battery plant in North America, news agency Bloomberg reported. The report has caused concern as well as optimism in the United States, with some fearing that the US may lag behind China in the fields of economy, energy and national security.
CATL is the world’s largest manufacturer of electric-vehicle batteries and people familiar with developments have told Bloomberg news agency it is exploring sites in Mexico, Canada and the US. It plans to build an 80 gigawatt-hour plant that will supply batteries to electric vehicle makers such as Tesla and other companies.
Jeff Chamberlain, CEO of Volta Energy Technologies, a capital firm spun off from Argonne National Laboratory and invests primarily in energy storage, said that CATL doesn’t mind having sites in the US, but allows the startup to start production. Advised to be cautious about Startups’ IP addresses can filter back to China.
However, Chamberlain said it was a good move as the US could face a battery supply-chain shortfall and should try to buy as many cells as possible. He also hopes it could create thousands of jobs and increase domestic EV adoption in the US.
Jim Greenberger, executive director of NAATbat International, also remained positive, but said China needs to bring with it battery manufacturing technology and the US. Jobs should not be low paying assembly jobs.
Abigail Seidler Wolf, director of critical minerals strategy at Securing America’s Future Energy (SAFE), told Bloomberg she is concerned about America’s reliance on energy and the security of the supply chain. He also expressed concern that the entry of the CATL could increase America’s dependence on China.
Wolf pointed to the energy crisis that Europe is concerned about in the wake of the war on Ukraine. She said the US should be wary of CATL’s entry into the US market, lest it make the country dependent on China for electric-vehicle batteries. “We see what’s happening today with the EU’s excessive reliance on Russia for its energy; we don’t want to be in that situation,” Bloomberg quoted Wolf as saying.
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