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Daniel Ren

Themis Qi

On a cloudy evening in late April, a tech event hosted at Beijing’s National Convention Centre by Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) drew nearly 1,000 people eager for a glimpse of next-generation electric vehicle (EV) batteries that could reshape the global automotive landscape.
Gao Huan, chief technology officer for the auto business at CATL, the world’s largest producer of EV batteries, exuded confidence while promoting the new Shenxing product series.
According to the company, its new, third-generation battery can charge from 10 to 98 per cent in under six and a half minutes. BYD’s second-generation Blade battery, by contrast, takes nine minutes to charge from 10 to 97 per cent.
With formations of electric current and heating effects projected on a giant screen, Gao sought to reassure his audience about how CATL designs and arranges cells to keep its battery packs safe and efficient.
Though more convenient, fast charging generates heat that can accelerate degradation in lithium-ion batteries, shortening their lifespan.
Gao explained how CATL’s technology isolated individual cells to prevent heat from spreading, saying the Shenxing series used independent sealed exhaust channels, allowing heat and electricity to exit the battery pack through separate paths.
“To accomplish product reliability, we have developed industry-leading testing methods and created a world-leading testing and verification centre,” Gao said. “In manufacturing, we make sure every single battery cell is made under extreme conditions in line with a stringent quality control system, with 7,000 quality checkpoints deployed along [each] product line.”
The battery pack, which accounts for about one-fourth of an electric car’s cost according to industry averages, is among the most important components of an EV and plays a decisive role in the global automotive industry’s shift to electrification, as technological advances are key to easing concerns over production costs, range and vehicle safety.
Higher-performance and lower-priced batteries will further drive electrification of the global automotive industry
Davis Zhang, Suzhou Hazardtex
CATL’s views on the sector carry particular weight.
The company, based in Ningde, in southeastern China’s Fujian province, led the global EV battery market with a 40.2 per cent share in the first five months of 2026, according to South Korea-based SNE Research.
Total global EV battery usage climbed 16.3 per cent from a year earlier to 469.2 gigawatt-hours (GWh), per SNE data. One GWh is enough to power about 20,000 EVs with a range of 500km (311 miles).
The Shenxing batteries’ greatly shortened charging time “materially alleviates consumer range and charging anxiety”, Morgan Stanley said in a research note a week after the CATL tech event. “On the flipside, debates about the safety and durability of ultra-fast charging continue.”
Over the past decade, improvements in manufacturing and rising sales volumes have helped drive down EV battery production costs, bringing some electric cars closer to cost parity with their petrol-powered counterparts.
Attention is now turning to technologies such as solid-state batteries, sodium-ion batteries, faster charging systems, and battery pack designs that enhance thermal management, as more car owners switch from petrol vehicles to electric cars.
In mainland China, the world’s largest automotive and EV market, pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars accounted for 57.4 per cent of the country’s new vehicle deliveries in the first half of 2026, according to the China Passenger Car Association.


The cost of EV batteries was as high as US$1,474 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2010. By 2025, global lithium-ion battery pack prices had fallen to about US$108 per kWh, according to BloombergNEF’s annual price survey.
A price of US$100 per kWh is seen by industry officials and analysts as a threshold for making unsubsidised EVs cost-competitive with their oil-guzzling peers.
China’s manufacturing heft has given its battery makers a cost advantage, with average prices in the country falling 13 per cent year on year to US$84 per kWh in 2025, BloombergNEF added, forecasting an average global battery pack price of US$62 by 2030.
Chinese EV battery makers also continued to dominate the global market as seven companies – including CATL, BYD and Gotion High-Tech – were among the world’s top 10 players, according to SNE Research.
Between January and May, the Chinese companies commanded a 72.6 per cent share of the global EV battery market, SNE data showed.
“Higher-performance and lower-priced batteries will further drive electrification of the global automotive industry,” said Davis Zhang, a senior executive at Suzhou Hazardtex, a supplier of specialised batteries. “Apparently, potential technological breakthroughs in solid-state battery could become a game-changer.”
Compared with existing liquid-based batteries, solid-state variants promise higher energy storage, longer driving ranges and improved safety, with a lower risk of overheating or fire. Beijing has been backing efforts to commercialise all-solid-state batteries, which, unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries, do not rely on flammable liquid electrolytes.


In late June, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said China would intensify its research and development into key next-generation battery materials, including solid-state electrolytes, to support the growth of its EV sector.
Several companies have already begun those efforts. Chinese battery maker WeLion’s semi-solid-state batteries, for example, power some of the premium EVs assembled by Shanghai-based Nio.
And in March, the state-owned Chery Automobile, based in central China’s Anhui province, unveiled an all-solid-state battery capable of powering a vehicle for more than 1,500km of driving distance on a single charge.
Chinese battery makers and their supply chain vendors are also striving to extend the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries.
Ganfeng Lithium, the world’s largest producer of lithium metal, aimed to raise the lifetime capacity of its energy-storage battery to 18,000 charges by the end of the year, which would allow it to last as long as solar panels, the company’s president, Wang Xiaoshen, told the South China Morning Post in May.
Gotion High-Tech, the world’s fifth-largest EV battery maker by delivery volume, also launched a new product in May that it said could be fully recharged over 15,000 times.
A solar panel is typically estimated to be able to work 25 years or more, while lithium-ion batteries could last up to 10 years, according to analysts.
In China, there is no industry that is not competitive. That’s why China’s products could evolve so rapidly
Wang Xiaoshen, Ganfeng Lithium
Both Ganfeng and Gotion said they had managed to produce batteries with a capacity of more than 580 ampere-hours (Ah) and were planning to boost it to over 600 Ah.
An Ah is a unit of measurement to reflect the electrical charge a battery can hold and deliver over time.
Such advancements in battery technologies, as well as the reduction of costs, partly resulted from the fierce competition within the sector in China, according to Ganfeng’s Wang.
“In China, there is no industry that is not competitive,” Wang said. “That’s why China’s products could evolve so rapidly.”
Even if battery firms from other countries were able to claim achievements in cutting-edge technologies, China’s prowess in manufacturing and supply chains would support the country in retaining its competitive advantage when it came to mass production, said Yang Jing, director of Asia-Pacific corporate ratings at Fitch Ratings.
Chinese battery makers are also moving downstream to enhance profitability and deepen their ties with EV assemblers in fine-tuning thermal designs and battery management.
“If competition boils down to cell chemistry, production scale and price per kWh, margins will inevitably compress,” Gavekal Technologies analyst AJ Cortese wrote in a research report released in May. “But if a supplier’s cell format, pack architecture, thermal design or battery-management logic becomes embedded in a carmaker’s platform, the battery supplier gains more durable leverage.”


This structural integration, described as a cell-to-chassis model, targets building battery cells directly into a vehicle’s load-bearing structure, which eventually helps carmakers reduce weight, save space and increase energy density with hundreds of redundant components removed, according to the report.
In late 2024, CATL unveiled its Panshi intelligent chassis – encompassing the battery, motor, power electronics, suspension, braking and steering – and encouraged EV builders to adopt the technology. The company said the chassis would improve crash safety, extend the car’s range, provide a platform for intelligent driving and shorten vehicle development cycles.
In March, CATL – which counts Tesla, BMW and Volkswagen among its clients – reported a net profit of 72.2 billion yuan (US$10.7 billion) for 2025, up 42 per cent from 2024.
The figure was only 8 per cent lower than the combined profits of China’s top four listed carmakers – BYD, Chery, Geely Auto and SAIC – which reported net income of 78.6 billion yuan in 2025. CATL earned 2 per cent more profit than the 70.59 billion yuan made by the country’s 11 listed carmakers, including smaller and loss-making players.
On July 24, CATL reported a record 43.28 billion yuan in net profit for the first half of 2026, up 42 per cent from the year before.
Robin Zeng Yuqun, founder and chairman of CATL, said at the April tech event in Beijing that concerted efforts were being made by EV builders and battery producers to pursue technological advancement to promote electric cars around the world.
“As Chinese-developed technologies rev up the go-global drive, we cannot rely solely on speed and volume,” he said. “We must bank on high-quality innovation and proven capabilities. We hope that what goes global is not just the Chinese products, but also the credibility of Chinese brands.”


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Amid a fiercely competitive domestic market, China’s battery tech leads in global innovation and cost reduction, promising safer, faster EVs


Amid a fiercely competitive domestic market, China’s battery tech leads in global innovation and cost reduction, promising safer, faster EVs.


.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Amid a fiercely competitive domestic market, China’s battery tech leads in global innovation and cost reduction, promising safer, faster EVs

Amid a fiercely competitive domestic market, China’s battery tech leads in global innovation and cost reduction, promising safer, faster EVs