CHINESE battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL) has supplied electric vehicle (EV) batteries to South Korea’s Kia Corp., the firms said Thursday, marking Kia’s first use of non-South Korean EV batteries for sales at home.

The South Korean automaker, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co., has chosen batteries from CATL for its electric Niro crossover SUV, aiming at expanding its range of battery suppliers, a South Korean newspaper reported Wednesday.

“With sales of its battery electric vehicles growing globally, Kia is cooperating with various battery suppliers to diversify and stabilize battery supply,” Kia said in a statement, confirming the use of CATL’s batteries.

A CATL spokesperson also confirmed the report, without elaborating.

CATL, whose clients include Tesla Inc. and Volkswagen AG, is the world’s largest battery maker for electric cars.

In another development, CATL raised 45 billion yuan (US$6.7 billion) after pricing one of the world’s biggest stock offerings this year.

The Shenzhen-listed company sold 109.76 million shares at 410 yuan apiece in an A-share private placement, it said in a statement Wednesday.

The final price represents a 19% discount to the company’s last close in Shenzhen and is around a 21% premium to the offering’s floor price of 339.67 yuan.

The share sale ranks as the second biggest globally this year, after rival battery maker LG Energy Solution Ltd. raised US$10.7 billion in January in South Korea’s biggest ever initial public offering.

CATL, based in Ningde in eastern China’s Fujian Province, has said it plans to use the proceeds for the production and upgrade of lithium-ion battery manufacturing in four Chinese cities, as well as research and development.

Industry tracker SNE Research says CATL has a share of more than 35% of the booming global EV battery market. Analysts say the market is worth tens of billions of dollars a year.     (SD-Agencies)