(Bloomberg) -- Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the world’s largest manufacturer of electric car batteries, has no plans to invest in stricken Swedish peer Northvolt AB, the Chinese company’s co-founder Pan Jian said in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
Investing in Northvolt “is not a priority for us,” the German newspaper cited him as saying in an interview published on Saturday. “There’s still a possibility that we can help them on the production side.”
The two companies had discussed a licensing model along the lines of the partnership CATL has with Ford Motor Co. in the last six months, Pan said. That was before the Chinese company became aware of the gravity of Northvolt’s financial situation, the newspaper cited him as saying.
“We didn’t know they were in such financial difficulties,” Pan said. “If Northvolt had gotten in touch a year or two earlier, it would have been easier because they were financially stable then.”
CATL is open to helping European companies that need its aid, he told the newspaper.
The Swedish battery maker filed for bankruptcy protection in the US last week after a desperate bid to secure rescue funding failed. Outgoing Chief Executive Officer Peter Carlsson said earlier in November that potential tie-ups in Asia were part of the scope of discussions on finding a solution to the company’s crisis.
Pan also said CATL is winning market share in Europe compared with Japanese and South Korean competitors. The company has plans to add more production in Europe alongside a new factory in the eastern German state of Thueringia and a facility it’s building in Hungary, he said.
“We’ll announce something on that soon,” he told the newspaper. “We want to be part of the global supply chain.”
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