Chinese battery giant CATL breaks ground on Spanish gigafactory with 2,000 workers

Chinese battery manufacturer CATL just broke ground for a gigafactory in Spain.

CATL was able to set up the company thanks to a joint venture with Stellantis, which owns a variety of European car brands, including Seat and CUPRA, also from Spain.

The factory will eventually employ up to 6,000 people.

And the hiring process is interesting.

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The company will initially only employ Chinese workers, but there’s a good reason for that

CATL, a major Chinese battery manufacturer, is building a €4.1 million ($4.7 million) gigafactory in Aragon, about 200 miles north-east of the capital Madrid.

This is China’s biggest single investment in Spain, even though it was partly funded (about $350 million) by the European Union.

The new factory will eventually employ between 4,000 and 6,000 people, and the hiring process is intriguing.

Up to 2,000 Chinese workers will handle the initial construction phase and, at the same time, the company will also begin training local workers.

Most will be trained locally, but some will travel to China for special training.

CATL also promised that Spanish hires will eventually make up over 90 percent of the workforce.

CATL wants to revolutionize the industry

CATL created battery packs that you can swap in about 100 seconds.

These batteries are already being used in an electric car that’s only available in China (the Changan Oshan 520 EV, pictured below), but the goal is to make them available for more models in the future, including European EVs.

Battery degradation is something that EV critics often cite as one of the main reasons why they believe that electric cars are just a stopgap measure, so this would definitely be a potential solution to that problem.

These batteries also solve another major problem for EVs: charging time.

The fact that you can replace the battery in 100 seconds means ‘charging’ your electric car takes around the same time as refilling a gasoline car at a gas station.

The batteries also feature ultra-fast charging, which means they can be charged pretty quickly.

It certainly sounds promising.