On September 22, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) initiated trial production at its newly built battery cell plant in Debrecen, Hungary. Currently, the first two production lines in the facility's initial cell manufacturing building have entered the trial operation phase.
According to CATL, the Debrecen plant completed all necessary prerequisites for launching trial production and secured its building occupancy permit in August 2026. This trial run is primarily focused on assembling, optimizing, and validating production equipment and manufacturing processes in preparation for subsequent commercial mass production.
The Debrecen project is CATL's second battery factory in Europe, following its facility in Germany. In August 2022, CATL announced an investment of €7.34 billion (approximately RMB 56.2 billion) to build a 100 GWh battery plant in the Southern Industrial Park of Debrecen, Hungary. Spanning roughly 221 hectares, the facility is planned for the production of both battery cells and modules, primarily serving European automakers.
Construction of the project’s first cell manufacturing building began in the summer of 2023, with equipment installation completed by the spring of 2026. The rollout of trial production marks the project’s transition from the facility and equipment construction stage into line commissioning and process validation.
In addition to cell production lines, CATL initiated battery module assembly in Debrecen in the autumn of 2024. To date, the base has produced a cumulative total of approximately 537,000 battery modules. Upon full completion of all planned facilities, the Debrecen plant will achieve an annual capacity of 100 GWh, becoming CATL’s largest manufacturing base outside China.
Meanwhile, CATL recently raised prices for select energy storage battery cells in its domestic market. On September 21, CATL updated quotes on its online store, adjusting the starting price for 280Ah (1P) energy storage cells to RMB 0.470/Wh and 314Ah cells to RMB 0.403/Wh—representing increases of 1.1% and 2.0%, respectively, compared to early September levels. Additionally, CATL publicly listed the price for its 587Ah energy storage cell for the first time, set at a starting price of RMB 0.415/Wh.
Regarding the price adjustments, a spokesperson from CATL stated that it was a routine price alignment and that the company regularly adjusts prices in response to market dynamics.
Source：EnergyTrend