CATL is currently preparing to start construction on its first European plant in the German city of Erfurt, where it will spend up to 1.8 billion euros (1.62 billion pounds) by the middle of the next decade, but is already looking across the Atlantic.

"Yes we are thinking about that," Matthias Zentgraf, CATL's regional president for Europe, told Reuters at the Frankfurt auto show, adding North America was still behind China and Europe in terms of electric mobility.

"We hope that (the market) will ignite at a certain point in time in North America," he said.

Construction for the planned Erfurt battery cell plant, which could ramp up to have production capacity of more than 100 gigawatt hours by the middle of next decade, is expected to start sometime in the fourth quarter, Zentgraf said.

Zentgraf, who has already struck supply deals with BMW and Volkswagen, said he was having very good discussions with European carmakers about additional contracts, adding more would be announced in the coming months.

He declined to specify which carmakers he was talking to, but said the group was considering further production sites in European Union due to high demand for electric vehicle batteries, not singling out any specific markets.

The market for electric vehicle battery cells is currently dominated by Asian companies including Korea's Samsung SDI LG Chem, SK Innovation, China's CATL and Svolt, as well as Panasonic in Japan.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Thomas Seythal and Chizu Nomiyama)