“We’re in the final sprint,” said European President Matthias Zentgraf on Monday in Arnstadt when he received an operating permit from the state of Thuringia for the first expansion stage of the plant. The capacity is initially eight gigawatt hours. That corresponds to an annual battery capacity for around 120,000 electric cars, said Zentgraf of the German Press Agency.
According to him, 1,500 employees from the region will be hired by the end of the year. In addition, there are several hundred experts from China who are involved in the installation of the production facilities and in the start-up phase of production. The plant near Arnstadt is the first of CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology) outside of China. Around 1.8 billion euros would be invested. Thuringia’s Environment Minister Anja Siegesmund (Greens) spoke of one of the largest battery cell factories in euros with up to 2000 jobs in the final stage.
/red/DP/eas
ARNSTADT (dpa-AFX)
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