Valmet Automotive and Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited (CATL), a leading global provider of battery and energy storage solutions, have entered into strategic partnership in electric automotive solutions. Simultaneously CATL has subscribed to new shares issued by Valmet Automotive for a 22 % ownership in the company. After the new share issue, the owners of Valmet Automotive are Pontos (39 %), Tesi (39 %) and CATL (22 %).
CATL is a private Chinese company developing, manufacturing and providing after-sales services of lithium-ion battery solutions for electric vehicles and energy storage markets. It is among the three leading electric vehicle battery providers globally and the clear market leader in China with a large portfolio of world class customers. It has a strong aspiration to enlarge its footprint and further expand its business in the fast evolving European electric vehicle market. At the end of 2016, CATL employed over 10,000 employees worldwide.
Competences and businesses of Valmet Automotive and CATL are strongly complementary. The companies will together build capabilities to support the leading European automotive manufacturers and their suppliers by engineering electric vehicle drive train solutions and supplying battery packs to them. The partnership also strengthens CATL’s position to enter the fast evolving European electric vehicle market.
Valmet Automotive benefits significantly from the investment and CATL becoming an active owner of Valmet Automotive. CATL brings new resources and capabilities for Valmet Automotive to invest into the development of its capabilities, offering, operations and competitiveness in Finland and Central Europe.
– We warmly welcome CATL as a strategic partner and new owner to Valmet Automotive. The electrical vehicle market is in a fundamental transformation and the growth expectations are significant. CATL brings new resources and capabilities for Valmet Automotive to invest into this very interesting market at the very right moment. China is globally the largest and most important electric vehicle market today and CATL is recognized there as the top battery provider. They have profound skills and impressive knowledge that we can jointly bring to the benefit of the European automotive industry and we are very proud that CATL has chosen Valmet Automotive as their partner. Our teams in Finland, Germany and Poland have served leading European automotive manufacturers for decades and now we aim to open a new path in the development of Valmet Automotive, says Mr. Jarkko Sairanen, Chairman of the Board, Valmet Automotive.
– We are excited to join Valmet Automotive as an investor and a strategic partner. Our shared aim is to develop a strong position in the European electrical vehicles market. Valmet Automotive, with long relationships to all leading European automotive OEMs, strong reputation and world-class engineering and manufacturing capabilities is a perfect partner for us, says Mr. Jia Zhou, Chief Operating Officer, CATL.
The strategic partnership of Valmet Automotive and CATL will be focusing in particular on project management, engineering and battery pack supply for electric and hybrid vehicles.
– Strategic partnership enables both parties to complement their offerings in the expanding field of electric mobility. For realizing the great potential of this partnership, Valmet Automotive and CATL have jointly formed a common collaboration and development roadmap for electric vehicle operations, which we start to implement immediately, says Mr. Ilpo Korhonen, CEO, Valmet Automotive.
