China's battery industry had good news to share ahead of the National Day holiday: CATL's new cell plant in Debrecen, Hungary, has begun trial production.
With planned capacity of 100 GWh a year, the plant is far more than an overseas production line. It is CATL's largest manufacturing base outside China and the largest battery production base a Chinese company has built abroad.
How big is “largest”? At roughly 80 kWh per battery pack for a pure electric car, 100 GWh a year could equip about 1.25 million vehicles.
Getting this flagship project into production was never going to be easy, and the milestone matters: China's power battery industry has again passed Europe's stringent standards, deepened its localized manufacturing footprint overseas and added another footnote to high-quality development.
More than a test of capacity
Why does the Hungarian plant matter? For the new energy vehicle industry, it is contested ground.
First, Hungary is an EU member state.
Goods made here that meet rules of origin can circulate across the EU's 27 member states as “made in the EU” — effectively a ticket into the European market.
Second, it sits in the heart of Europe, where an automotive cluster is already in place.
Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and BYD all assemble vehicles in Hungary, and Samsung SDI and SK On have laid the groundwork for battery manufacturing.
Building battery plants in Europe is a two-way street.
For Chinese battery makers, building capacity next to major automakers is far more practical than shipping across the ocean. It shortens the distance to customers, improves supply chain responsiveness and allows products and services to be tailored to local demand.
European automakers, racing to electrify, also want local battery supply. Stable output, reliable quality and continuous technology upgrades bear directly on their production schedules and competitiveness.
On the face of it, the start-up of CATL's Debrecen plant looks like a natural progression.
In reality, it was anything but. Several European battery makers have stumbled on the road to industrialization.
Sweden's Northvolt raised more than $15 billion and struck deals with BMW and other automakers, but filed for bankruptcy in March 2025 with debts of $5.84 billion. Norway's Morrow Batteries filed for bankruptcy in May, after shareholders injected about 3.3 billion Norwegian kroner. France's ACC, owned by Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and TotalEnergies, has shelved plans for plants in Germany and Italy.
The difficulty is understandable. A battery plant is no ordinary factory: it involves NMP and other solvents, heavy metals, wastewater and hazardous waste, and cell cooling and cleaning consume large volumes of water.
Nor is building abroad simply a matter of copying a proven domestic line. Companies must adapt to local regulations, environmental standards, approval procedures and labor management. Policy shifts in Hungary this year have made that harder still.
This year, some battery companies operating in Hungary have been fined for violations, and others remain under investigation. Reuters reported in July that Hungarian police had opened four criminal investigations into Samsung SDI since 2023, covering environmental damage, workplace safety hazards and waste management violations. SK On's battery plant in Iváncsa was fined 100 million forint — the maximum the law allows — after labor safety inspectors found serious occupational safety problems.
In short, running stable production overseas requires not only matching supply with demand but also passing a combined test of quality, technology, environmental performance, policy adaptation and market development.
This time, CATL has passed the test in Hungary.
“Quality Made in China” earns recognition
In February 2024, the Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments published guidelines on supporting the sound development of trade cooperation in new energy vehicles. The document encourages NEV and supply chain companies to leverage their strengths, pursue technological cooperation in relevant countries, build industrial and supply chains that all parties share, integrate into the global NEV innovation network and strengthen China's design, research and engineering capabilities.
Seen in this light, the start-up of CATL's Debrecen project is not a simple relocation of capacity but another important case of the sound development of China's NEV trade cooperation.
Its success is no accident. More than a decade of sustained growth in China's NEV industry has driven the maturing of the power battery supply chain, producing a fairly complete industrial system spanning materials supply, production equipment, manufacturing processes, product development and large-scale application.
According to SNE Research, global battery installations totaled about 608.5 GWh in the first half of 2026, up 20 percent year on year. Chinese companies took seven of the top ten places with a combined share of 72.4 percent, and CATL alone accounted for 39.9 percent.
The numbers are striking. A decade ago, Europe's battery market was dominated by Japanese and Korean firms; today Chinese battery supply chains are pushing deeper into localized production in Europe. That shift is the direct result of sustained investment in research and development and of winning market recognition on product quality.
Notably, the way Chinese battery makers go global is changing too.
Early on, companies expanded mainly through exports and partnerships with overseas customers. As the global NEV supply chain reshuffles, more are building production bases abroad, extending manufacturing, supply chains and customer service into local markets.
EVE Energy launched its Hungarian battery plant in 2024 with planned annual capacity of 28 GWh and total investment of about 9.97 billion yuan. Due to start production in 2027, the plant will make large cylindrical cells for the European market and is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs.
On September 28, Gotion High-tech and PowerCo, Volkswagen's battery subsidiary, announced a deepened strategic partnership. They plan joint ventures in Spain, Slovakia and Morocco to build lithium battery and cathode material plants, with total investment of about 3.22 billion euros.
The successful start-up of CATL's Debrecen gigafactory may mark a new starting point for China-Europe NEV supply chain cooperation. It shows that CATL is the first to complete the full sequence for a 100 GWh-class battery plant in Europe — land acquisition, environmental approval, module production first and then trial cell output — offering a complete template for more Chinese battery makers pursuing localized manufacturing in Europe.