Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), a Chinese technology company founded in 2011, specializes in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, and energy storage and battery management systems. Headquartered in Ningde, Fujian Province, it operates manufacturing bases in Ningde, Qinghai and Liyang. Its two main R&D centres are based in Ningde and Berlin. Its annual sales volume was 6.8 GWh of energy storage capacity in 2016. Based on annual shipments, CATL is among the world's largest providers of electric vehicle, hybrid electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle battery solutions. It aims to have a global lithium-ion production capacity of 50 GWh.