BEIJING, January 17 (TMTPost)-- Official documents suggested Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL), China’s No.1 electric vehicle (EV) battery maker, is going to establish a new production base that is set to supply the latest EV model of Li Auto and Xiaomi Corporation.

Credit：CATL

In its outline of a host of eonomic stimulus policies for the first quarter of 2024, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Development & Reform, a municipal government body serving as the top economic planner of China’s capital, revealed Beijing will embrace breaking news about the auto industry planning to further complement the whole industry chain, and some of them involve Li Auto Inc. and CATL, reported Beijing Daily, the official newspaper of the Beijing municipal committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Beijing authorities will plan to establish a production base for auto parts and start construction of CATL’s facility in Beijing in 2024, according to the report. The new industry trend brought by Li Auto and CATL will help put Beijing city’s industries on more solid footing, the report said.

CATL later responded it didn’t have any information to disclose. Nevertheless, the recent report suggested CATL’s new plant may be set up for supply chain improvement of Li Auto and Xiaomi’s auto business as Xiaomi’s first EV model SU7 and Li Auto’s first MPV (multi-purpose vehicles) model are powered by CATL’s Qilin battery.

Xiaomi’s auto unit was reported in last September to have started pilot production for less than a month in its factory in Yizhuang, a town in the southeast suburbs of Beijing, and there are about 50 vehicles to be built per week for test. The Yizhuang facility, built in two phases, is set to have a total annual capacity of 300,000 vehicles, with 150,000 units of each phase, and construction of its first phase has completed and passed acceptance testing in June, according to reports earlier 2023.

At an event on December 28, Xiaomi unveiled technologies that empower SU7 and its specs. The Chinese smartphone leader showcased the basic version SU7, namely, the rear-wheel-drive variant, backed by BYD’s LFP battery, has a single electric motor, with the peak power of 220kW and the maximum speed of 210km/h. The CATL battery-powered premium variant will be a dual-motor setup that combines the front motor and the rear motor, which enables the vehicle to drive as fast as 265km/h. Moreover, it has a zero to 100km/h acceleration time of just 2.78 seconds, beating the Porsche Tycan Turbo, and officially join the “2 seconds Supercar Club” with a single step.

Xiaomi didn’t not make public the launch timetable or price tag of SU7. The CEO Lei Jun reiterated Xiaomi wants to become the top five automobile club in the world in the next 15 to 20 years. He said it’s impossible to set a price of RMB99,000 or RMB149,000, and noted vehicles powered by batteries with the same specs as SU7 are sold for more than RMB400,000 at average.  “Let’s show respect for the underlying technology ,” Lei said. In a post on X prior to the event, Lei said SU7 is in trial production and it will hit the domestic market in a few months. “The price has not been finalized yet, but we promise it will exceed your expectations,” according to Lei.

Li Auto unveiled the seven-seat MEGA in November 2023 at the Guangzhou International Automobile Exhibition in China. The MVP is the first model to feature CATL's Qilin Battery that supports 5C ultra-fast charging. The 1,000 kilometer (621 mile) capable Qinlin battery, MEGA can charge to 500 kilometers of range in just 12 minutes. The model secured 10,000 pre-orders within two hours of its release. MEGA is open for reservations starting from November 17, 2023. Li Auto said its retail price is expected to be below RMB600,000 (US$84,200), and the minivan would be the first model produced at its Beijing plant, which has an annual capacity of 100,000 units.In a statement about updated rollout plan released in December, Li Auto expects an officially launch MEGA on March 1, 2024 and  deliveries will commence in early March.