SEOUL, May 1 -- Hyundai Motor, South Korea's biggest automaker, has selected Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) as its first battery supplier in China to enhance cooperation in new energy vehicles.

"We selected CATL as our first Chinese battery partner as Hyundai seeks to diversify its supplier base," a Hyundai official who declined to be identified told Xinhua Monday.

The official said CATL was widely recognized for its competitiveness in the automobile battery market.

The Fujian Province-based company will provide batteries for Hyundai's plug-in Sonata sedans that are expected to hit the Chinese market in the first half of 2018.

The Sonata plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) models would have both an internal combustion engine and an electric motor.

Beijing Hyundai Motor, Hyundai's Chinese venture, said at the Shanghai auto show in April that it would introduce six new energy vehicles in China within a short period of time beginning with an electric variant sedan model in the latter half of this year.

The CATL is supplying automobile batteries to renowned carmakers and Chinese brands. It plans to start operation of a new factory in east China's Jiangsu Province next year.

It is forecast to increase its battery output capacity six-fold by 2020 to 50 gigawatt-hours (GWh).