Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL), founded in Ningde, Fujian in 2011 by Robin Zeng and Huang Shilin, is the largest battery manufacturer on Earth and the single most important company in the electrification of transport and the grid.
Latest update Oct 4, 2026
01
It held 39.9% of global EV battery installations from January through July 2026 on 289.6 GWh, roughly 2.7 times its nearest rival BYD, and has ranked first worldwide in energy-storage battery shipments for five consecutive years, shipping 121 GWh of storage cells in 2025. FY2025 revenue reached RMB423.7B (about $61B) with net profit up 42% to RMB72.2B, and H1 2026 accelerated hard: revenue of RMB276.9B (up 54.8%) and net profit of RMB43.3B (up 42.0%), with grid storage now nearly a fifth of the business at RMB53.2B. The product line spans the Shenxing superfast-charging LFP battery (third generation charges 10-80% in 3 minutes 44 seconds), the Qilin and Qilin Condensed high-density packs, the Freevoy hybrid battery, the Naxtra sodium-ion battery entering full mass production by the end of 2026, the TENER grid-storage family, whose sodium-ion variant launched in June 2026 with first China customer deliveries still targeted for September 2026, and TECTRANS II, a modular commercial-vehicle battery launched September 14, 2026 at IAA Hanover (up to 1,000 km, 80% in 25 minutes) alongside a DHL MoU for European Green Freight Corridors. CATL raised $5.2B in a May 2025 Hong Kong listing, the largest IPO in the world that year, and is spending it on a European build-out: a Debrecen, Hungary cell plant that CATL now describes as a 100 GWh site once all facilities are ready, which received an occupancy permit for its first cell building on August 25, 2026 and began trial production on the first two cell lines on September 22, 2026 after completing remaining IPPC conditions (series production still undated), and a 50 GWh LFP joint venture with Stellantis in Zaragoza, Spain, now guided to Q1 2027. Its technology now reaches the US indirectly through licensing, with Ford's BlueOval Battery Park Michigan starting operations on CATL-licensed LFP chemistry in June 2026, even as CATL itself remains on the Pentagon's Section 1260H list of Chinese military companies. Market capitalization stood at about $233B in September 2026, down from an April record near $306B after the Hungary halt and a lithium-mine licence revocation at Jianxiawo.
prnewswire.comUpdated Sep 22, 2026
Analysis · 5 min read · Aug 1, 2026The long view on CATL: strategy, technology and what to watch02
Calendar 2026
2026
TargetNamed customer/shipment still unpublished after September; 1 GWh year-end target last stated 22 June 2026
Q4 2026 to 2027
Yichun Times New Energy Mining posted a September 18, 2026 pre-approval EIA disclosure for the Zhenkouli-Jianxiawo lithium mine after an earlier proposed-acceptance notice was revoked, Mysteel reported September 20. The mine remains idle pending a new approval; Benchmark Mineral Intelligence had cut 2026 mined output to 32,000 tonnes of LCE from 62,500 tonnes and said the review could slip into the fourth quarter of 2026 or 2027.
Dec 2026
TargetDecember 2026 (trial); Q1 2027 (full production)
After SAMR unconditionally cleared CATL's acquisition of equity in Chongqing Yaoning New Energy Technology (review closed September 3, 2026; parties CATL and Zeekr Automobile (Shanghai)), plant-level reporting still targets December 2026 trial production at the 18 GWh first phase under construction, with full production in the first quarter of 2027 and a long-term planned 30 GWh of annual capacity. Stake size and price were not disclosed.
Year-end 2026
Chief Scientist Wu Kai confirmed on May 30, 2026 that CATL has cleared the four manufacturing bottlenecks (extreme water control, gas generation in hard carbon, aluminium foil adhesion, and self-forming anode systems) and reaffirmed full mass production by the end of 2026. Commercial demand is already validated by an April 27, 2026 three-year, 60 GWh supply deal with Hyperstrong, the largest sodium-ion battery order to date. CATL said on August 20, 2026 it now expects sodium-ion cells to reach cost parity with LFP by end of 2026, citing over 90% capacity retention at minus 20 Celsius and roughly triple LFP's discharge power at minus 30 Celsius; China customer deliveries begin in September 2026 with global shipments to follow within a year. Success would put a lithium-free chemistry into volume cars and grid projects at once.
Year-end 2026
CATL's June 22, 2026 Munich launch said first China customer deliveries of TENER Sodium begin in September 2026, with roughly 1 GWh targeted by year end. As of September 11, 2026, CATL has not published a first-shipment confirmation; the company's own TENER Sodium page still uses the September start language. International deliveries remain scheduled for June 2027, including an MOU with Dutch energy company Alfen for 5 GWh in Europe. CATL has also said sodium-ion cells are on track to reach cost parity with LFP by year end, citing over 90% capacity retention at -20C and roughly triple LFP's discharge power at -30C.
Year-end 2026
CATL plans to operate 4,000 integrated supercharging and battery-swap stations across 190+ Chinese cities by the end of 2026. It passed 2,000 Choco-Swap stations across 180 cities in 31 provinces on June 30, 2026, up from 700 stations in late 2025, and is adding more than 200 new stations a month, turning its swap standard into infrastructure rather than a product feature. CATL has since raised its standalone Choco-Swap target to 3,000 stations by end-2026 (from an earlier 2,500) and opened its first two stations in Hong Kong, part of a longer-term goal of 30,000 swap stations globally via franchising.
Year-end 2026
CATL said at its Ning Day 2026 event in Haikou that its directly-run Ning Service after-sales network, which uses automated diagnostics aimed at cutting EV battery repair times to 72 hours or less, will expand to 100 cities worldwide by the end of 2026. CATL's August 10, 2026 newsroom post said Ning Service opened 10 more direct-operated flagship experience centers globally, adding to earlier sites in China plus international locations in Norway and Istanbul and a franchised network of 1,376 service centers across 84 countries. The 100-city year-end target is unchanged as of September 11, 2026.
Q1 2027
The 50:50 Contemporary Star Energy LFP cell and module plant in Figueruelas/Zaragoza, worth up to EUR4.1B and running entirely on renewable power, received final regulatory approval from the Aragon regional government (Project TORO) on July 27, 2026. Production, previously targeted for end of 2026, is now expected in the first months of 2027. Construction workforce is ramping toward full capacity (around 500 on site, including 172 from China in design, engineering and management roles), and the plant will create 4,000+ direct jobs supplying LFP cells for Stellantis EVs including the Peugeot e-Expert, Citroen e-Jumpy and Opel Vivaro-e.
2027
TargetSeries production undated; BMW supply 2027
CATL began trial cell production on the first two Debrecen lines on September 22, 2026 after an August occupancy permit and remaining IPPC conditions. The trial is meant to set up, optimise and validate equipment before series production; CATL did not disclose a mass-production date. BMW's supply of Debrecen-made cells is still only expected in 2027. The 5 GWh module line has been running since autumn 2024 (about 537,000 modules, per CATL via CnEVPost). A new 44,000 sqm GreenPower Energy Debrecen logistics and pack-assembly unit is targeted to start at the end of October 2026. Roughly 90% of the Hong Kong IPO proceeds were earmarked for this site.
Jun 2027
CATL said at the June 2026 Munich launch that global TENER Sodium shipments start in June 2027, a year after first China customer deliveries. The dated export window includes an MOU with Dutch energy company Alfen for 5 GWh of TENER Sodium in Europe and the export tranche of the three-year, 60 GWh HyperStrong order. It is the first scheduled date on which a commercial sodium-ion grid system is supposed to leave China at scale.
2027
CATL targets small-scale all-solid-state manufacturing in 2027 at roughly 5 GWh of capacity. Chairman Robin Zeng and Chief Scientist Wu Kai have been pointedly cautious about what follows: as of August 2026 the technology, internally called Ningde Shidai All-Solid-State, sits at level four of nine on the readiness scale with a goal of reaching level seven or eight by the 2027 pilot stage, early applications will be limited to cars priced above RMB250,000, and Zeng puts the odds of million-vehicle solid-state installations before 2030 as very small. CATL reiterated this timeline to investors in an August 2026 Q&A, in a race with BYD over which company reaches small-scale solid-state production first; CATL's cells are reported at 500 Wh/kg energy density, though sulfide solid-state cells remain three to five times costlier than conventional lithium-ion.
End of 2027
TargetEnd of 2027 (Los Maitenes); other two projects unspecified
ContourGlobal awarded CATL a contract, reported August 11, 2026, to supply containerized liquid-cooled battery energy storage systems for three projects: Los Maitenes in Chile (131 MWp solar plus 90 MW/360 MWh storage, targeted for commercial operation by end of 2027), Taxiarches in Greece (100 MW/400 MWh), and the Wallace project in Scotland (500 MW/2,000 MWh, still in advanced development). The roughly 3 GWh deal uses CATL's large-format LFP cells packaged in 526 containers, with delivery flexibility built in to match each project's development pace.
2035
CATL said on August 17, 2026 that it met its 2025 target of carbon neutrality across core operations, with all 20 battery plants certified carbon neutral and 100% zero-carbon electricity in core operations, and laid out a roadmap to extend that to its full value chain, covering raw materials, component production, transportation and recycling, by 2035. Procurement guidelines announced alongside the roadmap require suppliers to provide carbon footprint data starting in 2027, with favorable terms for suppliers with better emissions performance.
Undisclosed
The Ya'an Economic and Technological Development Zone published the first EIA disclosure for a 1.4 billion yuan CATL lithium-salt base targeting 40,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate and 30,000 tonnes of lithium dihydrogen phosphate. Watch a later EIA round, approval, construction start, and feedstock plan; the September 16 disclosure did not grant approval or name a start date.
Undisclosed
CATL signed an MoU with DHL Group on September 14, 2026 at IAA Hanover to develop Green Freight Corridors across Europe, building on a September 2024 agreement. The partners said they will use DHL's logistics network and CATL's battery and electrification stack, and work with OEMs on purpose-built electric vehicles and pilot deployments. No corridor routes, vehicle counts or start dates were disclosed.
Undisclosed
The September 13, 2026 Cabinet-witnessed contract between BME Battery Manufacturing and CATL commits more than 2 billion Egyptian pounds (about $39 million) to a plant that starts at 1 GWh a year for heavy commercial vehicles and is planned to reach 5 GWh with passenger-car and solar/wind storage plus a 40 percent local-content target. Neither party has named a city, industrial zone or first-production date.
Unspecified
CATL's 350 Wh/kg prismatic-cell aviation battery cleared a thermal-runaway propagation safety test around August 9-10, 2026 and is now described as ready for mass production, with passenger eVTOL maker Autoflight, in which CATL holds a strategic investment, first in line to fly it. Production lines are reported to run at 95% automation with thousands of quality checkpoints. No mass-production start date has been disclosed yet.
03
CATL said September 22 it began trial battery-cell production on the first two lines at its Debrecen, Hungary factory after obtaining an occupancy permit in August and completing remaining IPPC permit conditions. The trial is meant to set up and validate equipment before series production; CATL did not give a mass-production date. The company said the Hungarian site will be its largest plant outside China at 100 GWh once all facilities are ready, and that Debrecen has made about 537,000 modules since autumn 2024.
Mysteel reported on September 20 that CATL's Jianxiawo lithium-mica mine in Yichun, Jiangxi, has restarted its environmental impact assessment after an earlier proposed-acceptance notice was revoked over questions about the construction unit's public-disclosure website. Yichun Times New Energy Mining posted a September 18 pre-approval disclosure of the Environmental Impact Report and public-participation statement for the Zhenkouli-Jianxiawo lithium mine on the Fengxin County Ecological Environment Bureau site. The mine is one of the world's largest single lithium-mica sites by scale, and its restart remains a key variable for lithium-carbonate supply after regulators halted operations in August.
The Ya'an Economic and Technological Development Zone published the first environmental-impact-assessment disclosure for a CATL Ya'an Lithium Salt Production Base, Mysteel reported on September 16. CATL (Ya'an) New Materials Technology plans to invest 1.4 billion yuan beside Gongxing Road in the Yongxing Industrial Zone for about 40,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate, 30,000 tonnes of lithium dihydrogen phosphate, and 130,000 tonnes of anhydrous sodium sulfate on about 350 mu. The notice is only the first public EIA step: it does not grant approval or mark a construction start, and the disclosure did not give a timeline, funding mix, or feedstock plan.
Li Auto launched the six-seat Li i9 on September 16 in a single Home trim priced at 369,800 yuan (about $54,400), with orders open immediately and deliveries starting this week. The i9 is the flagship of Li Auto's second-generation pure-EV platform and comes standard with a 101 kWh 5C ternary battery for up to 705 km of CLTC range, a 400 kW dual-motor all-wheel-drive system, steer-by-wire with rear-wheel steering, and four lidars paired with dual M100 chips. Li Auto claims a 0.215 drag coefficient, which it calls the lowest of any mass-produced SUV; early cars use CATL cells before a planned switch to Li Auto's own packs.
China's State Administration for Market Regulation listed CATL's acquisition of equity in Chongqing Yaoning New Energy Technology as unconditionally approved, with the review closed on September 3 and the case list published September 11. The parties named are CATL and Zeekr Automobile (Shanghai); stake size and price were not disclosed. Plant-level reporting puts Yaoning at about RMB 8.5 billion of investment with 30 GWh of planned annual capacity, an 18 GWh first phase under construction, trial production targeted for December 2026, and full production in the first quarter of 2027.
CATL unveiled TECTRANS II, its next-generation commercial-vehicle battery platform, at IAA Transportation 2026 in Hanover on September 14. The modular packs are rated up to 1,000 km of range, 80% charge in 25 minutes with megawatt charging, 170 Wh/kg, and a 12-year, 1.5 million km heavy-duty life with 70% retention. CATL also signed an MoU with DHL Group to develop Green Freight Corridors across Europe, building on a September 2024 agreement.
Egypt's Cabinet said Sunday that BME Battery Manufacturing and CATL signed a contract, witnessed by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, for a plant with initial investment above 2 billion Egyptian pounds (about $39 million). Phase 1 is 1 GWh a year of batteries for heavy commercial vehicles. Phase 2 would lift capacity to 5 GWh and add passenger-car cells plus solar and wind storage, with a 40 percent local-content target. The site and start date were not disclosed.
Energy-Storage.News reported on September 9, 2026 that CATL raised list prices on its 314Ah storage cells from RMB 0.414 per Wh to RMB 0.423 per Wh. The move follows China's 2% lithium-ion consumption tax that took effect September 1, 2026, rising to 4% on September 1, 2027. EVE Energy and Lishen are also passing the tax through, with 314Ah cells tight and sector utilization above 90%.
CATL signed strategic cooperation agreements with Xi'an Taijin New Energy and Materials Sci-Tech (TJNE), Shenzhen Huike New Materials and other partners covering centralized copper-foil equipment procurement, joint capacity development, cost-based pricing, shared R&D and renewable electricity. CATL plans to develop 400,000 tonnes of new copper-foil production capacity over three years with partners including Huike, using cost-plus pricing, volume commitments and CATL advance payments. TJNE is to supply standardized equipment for new and expansion projects under unified technical standards.
CATL's Jianxiawo lithium mine, China's largest by capacity, is back on care and maintenance after regulators revoked its environmental approval following a brief informal restart in June and July that left a tailings-pond dispute unresolved. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence said more than 70 formal complaints followed, authorities halted operations in the first week of August, and CATL must restart the environmental impact assessment. BMI cut its 2026 mined-output forecast for the site to 32,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent from 62,500 tonnes, while leaving its 2027 forecast unchanged at about 99,000 tonnes; the review could slip into the fourth quarter of 2026 or 2027.
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CATL chairman Robin Zeng warned at the 2026 World Power Battery Conference in Yibin on September 3, 2026 that China's compressed vehicle development schedules and intense price competition are contributing to batch-level power battery quality failures. Zeng said more than 600 new vehicle models have launched in China in 2026, roughly three a day, and argued that conventional parts-per-million defect tolerances are no longer adequate at that volume, citing CATL's own internal target of one defect per billion cells. He did not name the affected automakers or battery suppliers.
CATL said its CATL Mall direct-sales platform, launched in June 2026 to let small and mid-size energy-storage integrators buy lithium iron phosphate cells without going through distributors, has now signed up more than 1,800 companies. Storage-grade LFP cells on the platform start around 423 yuan (about $63) per kWh, with 47 kWh and 105 kWh modules and 5 MWh containers also listed; CATL says the model is meant to serve smaller buyers who can't meet traditional distributors' minimum order volumes.
CATL announced a strategic partnership with Brazilian battery maker Moura on August 29 to jointly bid in Brazil's Capacity Reserve Auction for Energy Storage (LRCAP 2026), pairing CATL's storage technology with Moura's local manufacturing to help meet the auction's local-content rules. The announcement came at The Smarter E South America 2026 in Sao Paulo, where CATL showcased its TENER S storage system and pointed to its existing 45% share of Brazil's energy storage market.
Hungarian authorities ordered work stopped in three cell-manufacturing areas of CATL's Debrecen battery plant after the company disclosed in early August that nine employees had elevated nickel exposure. Hajdu-Bihar county's occupational safety authority carried out three inspections between August 11 and 25 and found workers had not been adequately provided with protective equipment; CATL has suspended the ongoing commissioning of the affected equipment and says it is continuing biological exposure monitoring while it fixes the deficiencies.
CATL and Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor signed a five-year strategic cooperation agreement in Ningde on August 18, shifting their relationship from straight battery supply to joint development across tractors, dump trucks, cargo trucks and hydrogen fuel-cell commercial vehicles. The deal also commits both companies to build out battery-bank and vehicle-battery-separation business models meant to lower upfront purchase costs and lifecycle risk for commercial-vehicle buyers.
04
The LFP fast-charging platform that made four-minute charging a mainstream expectation. The third generation, launched in April 2026, peaks at a 15C charging rate and takes a pack from 10% to 80% state of charge in 3 minutes 44 seconds, holds above 90% capacity retention after 1,000 full cycles, and still charges from 20% to 98% in around nine minutes at -30C.
CATL's bet that the cheapest path past lithium is table salt. Naxtra reaches 175 Wh/kg, effectively matching LFP energy density while using no lithium, nickel or cobalt, and performs far better in extreme cold. CATL has said sodium-ion could eventually displace 30% to 40% of the existing battery market, and is deploying it across battery swapping, passenger cars, commercial vehicles and grid storage. The first mass-produced sodium-ion passenger EV, the Changan Nevo A06, was shown in February 2026.
CATL's grid-scale storage family and the product behind its five-year run as the world's largest storage battery supplier. The original TENER packs 6.25 MWh into a 20-foot container with claimed zero degradation across its first five years; the TENER Stack raised that to 9 MWh in May 2025. TENER Sodium, launched June 22, 2026, is billed as the first field-validated sodium-ion grid storage system, rated above 30 MWh per system with 15,000 cycles to 70% state of health, roughly 25 to 30 years of service.
CATL's battery system for passenger eVTOLs, built on prismatic cells with energy density as high as 350 Wh/kg. Around August 9-10, 2026 the system passed a thermal-runaway propagation test - triggering two adjacent cells simultaneously at both the center and corners of the pack - with no propagation to other cells in any test, a result CATL and China's CAAC, which was involved in manufacturing, inspection and testing, describe as a world first for a prismatic-cell aviation battery at this energy density.
05
(~$61B) in FY2025; RMB276.9B (~$40.9B) in H1 2026 alone, up 54.8% year over year
(Jan-Jul 2026, SNE Research) on 289.6 GWh installed, up 26.6% YoY - roughly 2.7x its nearest rival BYD (14.7% on 106.7 GWh); CATL and BYD together hold 54.6% of the global market
(up 81% YoY), 27.1% global ESS market share (up from 25.6% a year earlier) - still number one worldwide, ahead of Eve Energy (10.4%), Hithium (10.0%) and BYD (7.7%)
Raised from RMB 0.414/Wh to RMB 0.423/Wh as China applied a 2% lithium-ion consumption tax from September 1, 2026 (rises to 4% on September 1, 2027)
$233.25B as of September 2026, down from an April 2026 record of RMB2.1T (~$306B) and from ~$271B in August, after the Debrecen nickel-exposure halt and the Jianxiawo lithium-mine licence revocation; still among China's largest onshore stocks
(~$2.8B-5.6B) planned buyback and cancellation of A-shares, approved by shareholders at an August 12, 2026 EGM - the largest single buyback in Chinese A-share market history - alongside an interim dividend of RMB14.11 per 10 A-shares / HK$16.29 per 10 H-shares (RMB6.18B total; ex-dividend Aug 6, payment Sep 3, 2026)
Still led by the 60 GWh, three-year supply deal with Hyperstrong (Apr 27, 2026) - the world's largest sodium-ion battery order to date, roughly half of CATL's entire 2025 storage shipments; no larger deal reported as of September 11, 2026
14 production bases now operating worldwide (11 in mainland China, plus Erfurt, Germany, Debrecen, Hungary and the 6.9 GWh first phase of the Karawang, Indonesia joint venture with IBC and Antam). Debrecen received an occupancy permit for its first cell-production building on August 25, 2026 covering two lines and began trial cell production on those lines on September 22, 2026 after completing remaining IPPC conditions; CATL did not give a series-production date. CnEVPost, citing the company, said Debrecen has made about 537,000 modules since autumn 2024 and that the Hungarian plant will be CATL's largest outside China at 100 GWh once all facilities are ready. A new wholly owned GreenPower Energy Debrecen unit (44,000 sqm logistics, module/pack assembly and equipment repair) is targeted to start at the end of October 2026. Debrecen headcount was about 1,470 in July 2026 with a year-end target near 2,300. The 50 GWh Zaragoza, Spain LFP joint venture with Stellantis remains targeted for Q1 2027.
2,000 Choco-Swap stations across 180 cities in 31 provinces as of June 30, 2026 (up from 700 in late 2025), adding 200+ new stations a month; CATL raised its standalone end-2026 Choco-Swap target to 3,000 stations (from 2,500), and still expects 4,000 combined supercharging and swap stations across 190+ cities by end-2026. No newer official station count has been published as of September 11, 2026.
06
Operating status
Operational - profitable, dominant, and pivoting toward grid storage
As of 4 Oct 2026 neither CATL nor HyperStrong has published a named China customer, shipment date or acceptance for TENER Sodium cabinets. The 22 June 2026 launch page still uses future tense (begin delivering this September; cumulative shipments expected to reach 1 GWh by year-end; international deliveries June 2027). English newsroom through 22 Sept and Chinese newsroom through 19 Sept have no first-delivery PR. HyperStrong English company news newest item is 1 Sept Boxberg; the April 60 GWh agreement page names no dated cabinet handover. CATL has not issued a post-September restatement or withdrawal of the 1 GWh year-end target. Debrecen trial cells remain 22 Sept.
Cells, modules and packs for passenger cars, buses and commercial vehicles, supplied to BMW, Ford, Tesla, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota and most Chinese automakers. Still the majority of revenue, at a 20.63% gross margin in H1 2026.
Energy storage battery systems
Grid-scale and commercial storage built around the TENER family. RMB53.2B in H1 2026, up about 88% year over year, and the fastest-growing part of the company at 19.2% of revenue.
Battery materials and recycling
Cathode and anode materials plus closed-loop recycling through subsidiary Brunp, extended in 2025 into an integrated Indonesian value chain covering nickel mining, processing, materials and recycling.
Licensing chemistry, cell design and manufacturing processes to partners who build and own the plants. Ford's BlueOval Battery Park Michigan, which began operations on June 30, 2026, is the flagship example and CATL's main route into a US market closed to its own factories.
Battery swapping and charging network
The Choco-Swap standardised swap network and integrated supercharging stations, sold as a service to automakers and fleet operators. 2,000 Choco-Swap stations were live across 180 cities in 31 provinces as of June 30, 2026, and CATL still targets 4,000 combined supercharging and swap stations by year-end 2026.
AI data center power infrastructure
A new push into power equipment for AI data centers: CATL signed transaction documents on August 14, 2026 to inject RMB4.1B into Hangzhou Zhongheng Technology Investment (controlling shareholder of Zhongheng Electric, a data center power system and HVDC equipment maker), taking a 49% stake and becoming its largest shareholder as CATL builds exposure to the high-voltage DC infrastructure AI data centers are adopting.
07
How past announced dates turned out.
2/4announced dates hit on time
Bring the 50 GWh Stellantis joint venture in Spain online by end of 2026
Target Year-end 2026 · Resolved Jul 27, 2026
The Zaragoza plant did not reach production by end of 2026 as originally scheduled. The Aragon regional government granted final construction approval (Project TORO) on July 27, 2026, with production now guided to the first months of 2027.
Start battery cell production at the Debrecen plant by early 2026
Target Early 2026 · Resolved May 13, 2026
Construction finished and the plant's 40 GWh of capacity was fully booked, but cell production did not begin in the first months of 2026. By May 2026 CATL had missed its own March/April target for series production and was still supplying the Debrecen module lines with cells trucked in from other CATL factories, with cell output pushed later into 2026.
Break ground on the Stellantis LFP joint venture plant in Spain
Target 2025 · Resolved Nov 26, 2025
Construction of the 50 GWh LFP cell and module plant began in Zaragoza in late November 2025 under a 50:50 joint venture with Stellantis, with production scheduled to start by the end of 2026.
Complete a Hong Kong secondary listing in 2025
Target 2025 · Resolved May 20, 2025
CATL debuted on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on May 20, 2025, closing 16.4% above its offer price. Proceeds reached $5.2B after the overallotment was exercised, making it the largest initial public offering anywhere in 2025 and returning Hong Kong to the top of global fundraising rankings.
08
2026
Signs Kuehne+Nagel MoU on battery logistics and a China swap pilot
On 18 September 2026 CATL and Kuehne+Nagel signed a memorandum of understanding on battery logistics, transport electrification and Scope 3 emissions work. Initial items include electrifying CATL transport flows in Europe and a Qiji heavy-duty truck battery-swapping pilot set to launch in China this year, plus recycling, aftersales, storage and charging at logistics sites. This is an MoU, not a disclosed TENER Sodium shipment.
Starts trial cell production at Debrecen
CATL said September 22, 2026 it began trial battery-cell production on the first two lines at its Debrecen, Hungary factory after obtaining an occupancy permit in August and completing remaining IPPC permit conditions. The trial is meant to set up, optimise and validate equipment and processes before series production; CATL did not disclose a mass-production date. CnEVPost, citing the company, said Debrecen has made about 537,000 modules since autumn 2024 and that the Hungarian plant will be CATL's largest outside China at 100 GWh once all facilities are ready.
Restarts Jianxiawo environmental impact assessment
Mysteel reported on September 20, 2026 that CATL's Jianxiawo lithium-mica mine in Yichun, Jiangxi, restarted its environmental impact assessment after an earlier proposed-acceptance notice was revoked over questions about the construction unit's public-disclosure website. Yichun Times New Energy Mining posted a September 18 pre-approval disclosure of the Environmental Impact Report and public-participation statement for the Zhenkouli-Jianxiawo lithium mine on the Fengxin County Ecological Environment Bureau site. The mine remains idle pending a new approval after the August halt.
Discloses 1.4 billion yuan Ya'an lithium-salt plant EIA
The Ya'an Economic and Technological Development Zone published the first environmental-impact-assessment disclosure for the CATL Ya'an Lithium Salt Production Base, Mysteel reported on September 16, 2026. CATL (Ya'an) New Materials Technology plans to invest 1.4 billion yuan beside Gongxing Road in the Yongxing Industrial Zone for about 40,000 tonnes a year of lithium carbonate, 30,000 tonnes of lithium dihydrogen phosphate, and 130,000 tonnes of anhydrous sodium sulfate on about 350 mu. The notice is only the first public EIA step and does not grant approval or mark a construction start.
SAMR unconditionally clears equity in Chongqing Yaoning
China's State Administration for Market Regulation listed CATL's acquisition of equity in Chongqing Yaoning New Energy Technology as unconditionally approved, with the review closed on September 3, 2026 and the case list published September 11. The parties named are CATL and Zeekr Automobile (Shanghai); stake size and price were not disclosed. Plant-level reporting puts Yaoning at about RMB 8.5 billion of investment with 30 GWh of planned annual capacity, an 18 GWh first phase under construction, trial production targeted for December 2026, and full production in the first quarter of 2027.
Launches TECTRANS II and signs DHL Green Freight Corridors MoU
On September 14, 2026 at IAA Transportation in Hanover, CATL unveiled TECTRANS II, a modular commercial-vehicle battery platform that configures standardized packs for different payloads, is compatible with e-axle and central-drive architectures, and supports charging or battery swapping. CATL rated the maximum configuration at up to 1,000 km of range, 80% charge in 25 minutes with megawatt charging, 170 Wh/kg, 96% system round-trip efficiency, and a 12-year, 1.5 million km heavy-duty life with 70% capacity retention. At the show CATL also signed an MoU with DHL Group to develop Green Freight Corridors across Europe, building on a September 2024 agreement, including pilot deployments with OEMs.
Signs Egypt BME contract for 1 GWh then 5 GWh plant
Egypt's Cabinet said on September 13, 2026 that BME Battery Manufacturing and CATL signed a contract, witnessed by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, for an electric-battery plant with initial investment above 2 billion Egyptian pounds (about $39 million). Phase 1 is 1 GWh a year of batteries for heavy commercial vehicles. Phase 2 would raise capacity to 5 GWh and add passenger-car cells plus solar and wind storage, targeting 40 percent local content. BME was founded by MCV and Auto D. The site and start date were not disclosed.
Adds GreenPower Energy Debrecen logistics and pack unit
CATL Debrecen formed a wholly owned GreenPower Energy Debrecen unit to run warehousing, battery repackaging, module and pack assembly, and equipment repair from a 44,000 sqm hall in Debrecen's Southern Industrial Park, targeted to start at the end of October 2026 with more than 90 employees. CATL said Debrecen headcount was about 1,470 in July 2026 and aimed for roughly 2,300 by year end, with about 381,000 modules already produced.
2026
Debrecen cell plant gets occupancy permit, then stays halted
Hajdu-Bihar county issued an occupancy permit for CATL's first Debrecen cell-production building on August 25, 2026, covering two lines. Cell production still did not start: Caixin reported on September 2 that regulators ordered CATL to fix nickel-exposure safety gaps after nine workers showed elevated nickel, allowing only equipment testing until the deficiencies are closed. Module production at the site continues.
Raises 314Ah storage-cell list prices after China consumption tax
On September 9, 2026 Energy-Storage.News reported that CATL raised list prices on its 314Ah storage cells from RMB 0.414 per Wh to RMB 0.423 per Wh. The hike follows China's 2% lithium-ion consumption tax that took effect September 1, 2026 and rises to 4% on September 1, 2027. EVE Energy and Lishen are also passing the tax through, with 314Ah cells in tight supply and sector utilization above 90%.
Signs copper-foil supply-chain deals for 400,000 tonnes of new capacity
On September 7, 2026, CATL signed strategic cooperation agreements with Xi'an Taijin New Energy and Materials Sci-Tech (TJNE), Shenzhen Huike New Materials and other partners covering centralized copper-foil equipment procurement, joint capacity development, cost-based pricing, shared R&D and renewable electricity. CATL plans to develop 400,000 tonnes of new copper-foil production capacity over three years with partners including Huike, using cost-plus pricing, volume commitments and CATL advance payments; TJNE is to supply standardized equipment for new and expansion projects.
Jianxiawo environmental approval revoked after informal restart
Regulators revoked the environmental approval for CATL's Jianxiawo lithium mine in Yichun, Jiangxi, China's largest by capacity (nameplate approaching 150,000 tonnes of LCE a year), after a brief informal restart in June and July 2026 left a tailings-pond dispute unresolved. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence said more than 70 formal complaints followed, authorities halted operations in the first week of August, and CATL must restart the environmental impact assessment. BMI cut its 2026 mined-output forecast for the site to 32,000 tonnes of LCE from 62,500 tonnes and left 2027 unchanged at about 99,000 tonnes, warning the review could slip into the fourth quarter of 2026 or 2027.
Supernode BESS: Stage 2 online, Stage 3 financed
CATL and Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners announce on August 15, 2026 that Stage 2 of the Supernode battery energy storage campus in Brendale, Queensland has entered commercial operation, while Stage 3 reaches financial close on A$469 million in debt financing (total financing across Stages 1-3 near A$1.2 billion). CATL supplies EnerC Plus systems for Stages 1-2 and TENER S for Stage 3, plus long-term lifecycle support; the three stages together are set to reach 780 MW / 3,074 MWh, making Supernode Australia's largest operating BESS campus.
H1 2026: revenue up 54.8%, storage nearly a fifth of sales
First-half revenue reaches RMB276.9B (up 54.8%) with net profit of RMB43.3B (up 42.0%). Energy storage contributes RMB53.2B, or 19.2% of revenue, up from 15.9% a year earlier, as Chinese EV demand cools and grid storage takes over as the growth engine.
Ford's CATL-licensed LFP plant starts up in Michigan
BlueOval Battery Park Michigan, wholly owned by Ford but built on CATL-licensed chemistry, product design and manufacturing processes, is completed and begins operations on June 30, 2026, the first LFP cell plant of its kind in the United States.
TENER Sodium brings sodium-ion to the grid
On June 22, 2026 CATL launches TENER Sodium, billed as the world's first field-validated sodium-ion grid storage system: over 30 MWh per system, 15,000 cycles to 70% state of health at 25C, first Chinese deliveries in September 2026.
Super Technology Day: six launches in one day
On April 21, 2026 CATL unveils the third-generation Shenxing (peak 15C, 10-80% in 3 minutes 44 seconds), the third-generation Qilin (280 Wh/kg, 1,000 km range), the Qilin Condensed battery (350 Wh/kg, 760 Wh/L), the second-generation Freevoy hybrid battery, the Naxtra sodium-ion battery at GWh-scale industrialisation, and a plan for 4,000 combined supercharging and swap stations by the end of 2026.
Record 2025 results: RMB423.7B revenue, RMB72.2B net profit
The 2025 annual report shows revenue up 17% to RMB423.7B and net profit up 42% to RMB72.2B, on 121 GWh of energy-storage battery shipments (up 29%) and a fifth straight year at number one in global storage.
2025
Groundbreaking in Indonesia and Spain
CATL and partners break ground on a roughly $6B full-value-chain battery project in Indonesia in July 2025, spanning nickel, materials, recycling and a 6.9 GWh first-phase plant in Karawang. In November it starts construction with Stellantis on a 50 GWh LFP plant in Zaragoza, Spain, a 50:50 joint venture worth up to EUR4.1B.
$5.2B Hong Kong listing, the world's largest IPO of the year
CATL debuts on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on May 20, 2025, closing 16.4% up on day one. Proceeds reach $5.2B after the greenshoe, the biggest listing anywhere in 2025, with roughly 90% earmarked for the Hungarian plant.
Naxtra sodium-ion battery unveiled
At an April 2025 tech day CATL reveals Naxtra, a sodium-ion battery reaching 175 Wh/kg, effectively matching LFP energy density with a far cheaper and more cold-tolerant chemistry, alongside a dual-power architecture that pairs two chemistries in one pack.
2024
2018
2011
09
$11.9Bdisclosed across 2 rounds with a stated amount
IPO (Shenzhen ChiNext)
Jun 2018
Public markets (SZSE: 300750)
Private placement
Jun 2022
Institutional investors; the largest private placement ever completed on ChiNext
Hong Kong secondary listing
May 2025
Public markets (HKEX: 3750); cornerstone investors including Sinopec and Kuwait Investment Authority
