Producer
CATL
World's largest lithium-ion battery manufacturer, controlling ~37% of global EV battery market. Integrates upstream into minerals including Bolivia lithium deal and African cobalt sourcing.
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Inputs supplied
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Goods downstream
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Facilities
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Stories
What they make
1 input CATL supplies
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What else they do
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EV Battery Packs (World #1)
70%Energy Storage Systems (ESS)
15%Battery Materials + Upstream
10%Specialty Applications
5%
Intelligence
What's known
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Did you know2023
CATL is publicly known as an EV battery company, but the same LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery cell they manufacture for Tesla Model 3 standard range is also their primary product for grid-scale electricity storage, marine ship propulsion, mining truck batteries, and railway traction. The identical chemistry is scaled to different pack configurations for different markets. This creates an unusual situation: CATL's domestic Chinese manufacturing (in Fujian, Sichuan, and other provinces) simultaneously supplies: EV battery packs subject to the US IRA's FEOC (foreign entities of concern) restrictions (which may restrict US-market EVs using CATL batteries from receiving tax credits), grid storage batteries for US and European utilities, and marine batteries for international commercial shipping. US policy attempting to restrict CATL EV batteries from US market subsidies cannot easily separate CATL's grid storage supply from their EV supply — the same factory, same cells, different application. American utilities buying CATL grid storage are keeping CATL financially healthy to compete with US battery manufacturers in the EV market.
CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) ↗Origin2023
Robin Zeng (Zeng Yuqun) founded CATL in 2011 in Ningde, Fujian Province after leading ATL (Amperex Technology Limited), which had made lithium polymer batteries for Apple MacBook and iPhone. Zeng recognized that EV battery scale would dwarf consumer electronics batteries and founded CATL specifically for automotive. CATL's first major customer was BMW, which partnered with CATL for the i3 electric vehicle — a German automaker essentially transferring EV battery technology knowledge to a then-unknown Chinese startup. BMW's willingness to work with CATL (a decision driven by cost and volume capacity) gave CATL the manufacturing credibility and capital to scale. By 2017, CATL had surpassed Panasonic (which exclusively supplied Tesla at the time) to become the world's largest EV battery manufacturer. The ex-Apple battery supplier who went automotive became the company that determines whether Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen, and Hyundai can produce enough electric vehicles to meet regulatory mandates.
CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) ↗