With the comprehensive deepening of electrification and intelligence, mainstream automotive supply chain companies are beginning to step from behind the scenes to the forefront, achieving role transition in the process of major changes in the automotive industry and reconstruction of the automotive ecosystem, rather than being limited to suppliers of car companies in the past. The underlying logic of their "rise" is to leverage the new tracks of electrification and intelligence to achieve a paradigm shift in technology, reach a technology premium, become joint definers and equal participants of the underlying technology stack of new cars with automakers, and thus achieve a brand premium, with influence directly reaching the consumer end. Automotive supply chain companies are welcoming a strategic development opportunity for comprehensive advancement.
Aiming at the advancement of supply chain companies, "Auto Panorama" specially produced this issue's "Cover Story" special report.
Currently, the new energy industry stands at a new historical node. In this historical process where the energy revolution and the technological revolution intersect, and reality and the future overlap, CATL has always been answering a question with action: How to build deterministic long-term value in an uncertain world?
CATL's financial report shows that its revenue in 2025 reached a high of 423.702 billion yuan, with net profit of 72.201 billion yuan, and global market share reached 39.2%. It has ranked first globally in power battery usage for 9 consecutive years. Of note, this supply chain company located upstream of vehicle manufacturing saw its net profit last year exceed the total profit of 13 mainstream listed automakers. The joke that "car companies work for King Ning" seems to have come into reality.
Behind this phenomenon lies CATL's influence on mainstream automakers globally. And the starting point of all this is the core status of power batteries in the new energy vehicle industry—power batteries account for about 40% of the cost of the entire vehicle and are undoubtedly the "heart" of new energy vehicles. For automakers, stable and reliable battery supply has long evolved from a basic guaranteed demand into a core strategic demand concerning product competitiveness and long-term development; for CATL, how to transform "top customers" into "strategic allies" is also a key issue determining the ceiling of its business landscape.
So, how did CATL "bind" nearly half of the automotive industry single-handedly? The reason lies in the fact that from a power battery supplier to a full-domain energy ecosystem service provider, CATL has built a deep binding system covering capital, production capacity, R&D, supply guarantee, ecosystem, and more over more than ten years. It is this system that firmly incorporates mainstream global automakers into its own industrial landscape, realizing a leap from "selling batteries" to "setting standards, building ecosystems," and thoroughly reshaping the relationship between supply chain companies and automakers.
Capital Binding
In the wave of electrification reconstructing the automotive industry, CATL jumped out of the traditional supplier's single model of "supply and collect money," using diverse capital means such as direct investment, strategic equity participation, and joint venture holding to deeply penetrate the equity structure of automakers, upgrading the supply-demand relationship into a community of interest and a strategic symbiosis, achieving all-round binding from the levels of funds, discourse power, and resources, and solidifying the foundation of industrial discourse power.
According to incomplete statistics, as of the end of May 2026, the number of new energy automakers invested in by CATL through direct or indirect means has exceeded 10. The latest move was on May 25, 2026, when Seres Group announced that its subsidiary Chongqing Luedian Technology Co., Ltd. received capital increase totaling 6.671 billion yuan from five investors. In the investor list, Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Area Wending Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Wending Investment") ranked third with an investment amount of 984 million yuan and a shareholding ratio of 9.878%. This Wending Investment is a subsidiary wholly held by CATL.
Earlier, on May 12, 2026, the high-end intelligent new energy vehicle brand Qijing Auto jointly created by GAC Group and Huawei Qiankun announced that it had completed a strategic capital increase of more than 1 billion yuan, invested by CATL, investment platforms under Bosch, and capital of state-owned enterprises and central SOEs. It is understood that CATL's investment this time was also realized through paid-in capital of 300 million yuan via the wholly held Wending Investment, making it the single largest investor.
In fact, CATL's investment landscape extends far beyond these. In the new energy circle, "King Ning" is not just a battery seller, but more like a super player holding a capital map and "setting up circles" everywhere. In 2021, CATL invested heavily 770 million yuan to become the second largest shareholder of Avatr with a shareholding ratio of 23.99%, forming the unique CHN (Changan + Huawei + CATL) model at the time. As a return, Avatr not only featured CATL batteries as standard across all models but also globally launched CATL's Pangshi skateboard chassis for the first time.
In addition, CATL is also an early investor of Zeekr Auto, participating in Zeekr's Pre-A financing round. CATL not only holds about 2.97% of Chery through Wending Investment, but both sides also established the "Times Chery" joint venture company with a registered capital of 2 billion yuan. SAIC and CATL have actually been old partners for a long time. CATL holds about 0.48% of IM Motors, which is under SAIC. In BAIC Motor's financing of more than 8 billion yuan at the end of 2024, CATL invested 200 million yuan to become a shareholder.
In the commercial vehicle sector, in March 2026, Puquan Capital under CATL led the investment of 1.2 billion yuan in Lingyi Auto. In November 2025, FAW Jiefang announced a capital increase of 191 million yuan for the joint venture "Jiefang Times," and CATL invested simultaneously. The three parties invested a total of 412 million yuan. This joint venture company, established in 2023 with 50% shareholding each by FAW Jiefang and CATL, is just a microcosm of CATL's deep binding of automakers through capital ties in recent years.
In overseas markets, CATL also adopts the joint venture participation logic. On December 10, 2024, CATL and Stellantis each hold 50%, investing 4.1 billion euros to build a large-scale Lithium Iron Phosphate battery factory in Zaragoza, Spain. Products are exclusively for Stellantis' European models. Capital binding helps CATL deeply penetrate mainstream overseas automakers.
Of course, CATL has also hit snags when investing in automakers. For example, CATL once held about 2.67% of Neta Auto shares and invested in Aiways Auto early on. However, looking at the current situation, these two EV startups have basically exited the market.
CATL's capital binding is by no means simple financial investment, but a strategic layout to reconstruct the OEM-Supplier relationship and control industrial discourse power. This capital network model allows CATL to upgrade from a simple battery supplier to a strategic partner and community of interest for automakers, firmly grasping industrial leadership in the electrification wave, laying a solid capital foundation for all-round binding in technology, capacity, ecosystem, and other fields.
Production Capacity Lock-in
If capital is the skeleton of ties, then capacity is the flesh and blood. In the industry environment of cyclical tightness in battery supply and demand and intensified raw material price volatility, stable capacity is core competitiveness. CATL's capacity binding strategy can be summarized in one sentence: Build battery capacity where it is most needed—super factories next to automakers, or even directly built in customers' workshops. CATL provides deterministic capacity guarantees for cooperating automakers through three models: exclusive production lines, factory-in-factory, and regional bases, achieving deep binding through "capacity lock-in."
On June 30, 2025, CATL's two CTP 2.0 high-end battery pack production lines officially went into production at Seres Super Factory. This is the first time CATL cooperated with an automaker using the "Factory within a Factory" model to supply battery systems for local production of the AITO series models. The "Factory within a Factory" model is an innovative supply chain synergy model. CATL directly built battery production lines inside Seres Super Factory, achieving efficient closed-loop management from battery production to vehicle assembly. Batteries achieve "produce and install immediately," saving intermediate links such as packaging, transportation, and warehousing, shortening supply chain response speed to the 20-minute level.
If the "Factory within a Factory" is just a trial run of an innovative model, then the power battery joint venture companies widely established by CATL with mainstream automakers such as SAIC, GAC, FAW, Dongfeng, Geely, and Changan, such as Times SAIC, Times GAC, Times Geely, and Times Changan, usually hold controlling rights with 51% shareholding. As early as 2017, CATL cooperated with SAIC Group to establish "Times SAIC Power Battery Co., Ltd.," with a total investment of more than 10 billion yuan. This forward-looking layout allowed SAIC to fully reap dividends in the subsequent new energy transformation wave. When other competitors were queuing in front of CATL's headquarters to grab batteries, SAIC could steadily obtain battery packs meeting their customized needs through the exclusive production line of Times SAIC.
On February 13, 2026, Times Chery (Hefei) New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. was officially established, with registered capital of up to 2 billion yuan, held by CATL, Chery Automobile, and Chery Commercial Vehicle (Anhui) Co., Ltd. CATL holds 51%, while the latter two hold 49% in total. According to the agreement, Chery will obtain supply rights for CATL's core products such as Qilin Batteries and Sodium-ion Batteries first, while CATL will promote the application of innovative technologies such as semi-solid-state batteries and battery swap models in Chery's high-end models through technology licensing and joint R&D.
In factories laid out in Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, and other overseas locations, CATL has also achieved "wherever the vehicle is, the battery capacity is there." For international automakers such as Tesla, Volkswagen, and BMW, the European base is configured nearby; for automakers going global like Chery, Geely, and Leapmotor, the Southeast Asian base follows synchronously. Regional capacity layout effectively avoids trade barriers, logistics risks, and exchange rate fluctuations, ensuring automakers always have stable battery guarantees in global market expansion.
The underlying logic of capacity lock-in is using deterministic supply to counter uncertain cycles. For automakers, CATL's capacity guarantee means new cars do not get "choked" at launch, peak season delivery does not run out of stock, and overseas expansion has no worries; for CATL, locking capacity means locking sales, improving capacity utilization, dampening investment costs, and forming scale effects and cost advantages.
R&D Front-loading
If capacity lock-in binds the present, then R&D front-loading binds the future. Traditional battery supply follows a posterior adaptation mode of "automaker raises demand, battery factory makes products," while CATL has completely front-loaded R&D, achieving synchronized development, joint definition, and joint testing of vehicles and batteries, shifting from passive adaptation to active co-creation, realizing binding through deep technology embedding.
On December 17, 2025, CATL signed a 10-year deepened cooperation agreement with Voyah Auto. According to the agreement, CATL will actively cooperate with Voyah's new model development, prioritize providing leading battery technology, and comprehensively promote the scale application of benchmark battery brands such as Qilin, Shenxing, and Xiaoyao on Voyah models. This means Voyah's product planning will stay synchronized with cutting-edge innovation in the battery field. The cooperation vision between the two parties has expanded from a single power unit to new fields such as battery swap models, CIIC Intelligent Chassis Integration, Pangshi Chassis, and V2G representing future mobility ecosystems.
Of course, CATL's R&D front-loading logic is not limited to just this automaker. On November 11, 2025, CATL signed a 10-year comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with GAC Group. Both sides will carry out joint R&D in cutting-edge fields such as intelligent chassis and battery swap ecosystems, and based on CATL's deep accumulation in power batteries, energy storage systems, and energy service fields, jointly create new energy vehicles with stronger market competitiveness. Regarding GAC Trumpchi's model planning, both sides are actively promoting the application of Pangshi Chassis technology.
Since 2025, CATL has reached cooperation with many automakers—not only GAC Group and JAC Group, but also core customers like Li Auto and Seres. Battery manufacturers and automakers are stepping over traditional buying and selling games towards a new stage of deep binding and value co-creation. CATL's R&D system has thereby become more "forward-looking": When the next generation of battery technology is still iterating in the laboratory, CATL has already been planning future vehicle platform architectures with partners.
The deep significance of R&D front-loading lies in making CATL transform from a supplier passively responding to demand into a standard setter proactively defining future technology routes. The Qilin Condensed Battery released by CATL on February 26, 2026, with an energy density of 500Wh/kg, is planned to be equipped for the first batch on NIO ET9 and Zeekr 001 FR at the end of the year. These technology explorations, which are still among the forefront in the industry, are becoming the strongest glue for CATL to bind high-end customers.
Ecosystem Co-construction
In fact, CATL's business field extends far beyond batteries. It is extending electrification goals to broader fields such as low-altitude aviation, ships, and data centers, rapidly expanding battery swap networks and services, promoting zero-carbon ecosystem construction, improving the industrial ecosystem, and extending the value chain. Around automakers, CATL is building an all-domain ecosystem of battery swaps, energy storage, charging, green power, and recycling, achieving irreplaceable binding through ecological barriers.
In the battery swap field, CATL takes Chocolate Battery Swap and Qiji Heavy Truck Battery Swap as the core, working with Changan, Chery, GAC, Seres, SAIC-GM-Wuling, BAIC, and others to form a Super Swap Shared Network, jointly building swap stations, sharing swap blocks, and unifying interface standards. On April 25, 2026, Chery Automobile, Chery Green Energy, CATL, and Times Energy Service signed a strategic cooperation agreement. All parties will focus on the layout of "Super Charging + Battery Swap" shared networks and green energy ecosystem co-construction. Chery Automobile will comprehensively import the Chocolate Battery Swap system of CATL and Times Energy Service. CATL's cooperation with GAC Group is even more all-round. It covers not only key fields such as intelligent chassis application, joint R&D of battery technology, battery swap ecosystem co-construction, and electrified platform innovation, but will also carry out long-term deep cooperation in business fields such as battery leasing and joint station building.
Zero Carbon Parks are projects CATL is vigorously promoting. Currently, zero carbon parks have been laid out in Dongying, Shandong, Xiamen, Fujian, Datong, Shanxi, Yancheng, Jiangsu, Hainan, and other places. They create green smart manufacturing bases through 100% green power direct connection and Source-Grid-Load-Storage integration technology. On July 26, 2025, the first national 100% green power direct-connected zero carbon industrial park led by CATL started construction in Dongying, Shandong. The total investment exceeds 10 billion yuan. The project adopts "Wind-Solar Coupling + Grid-forming Technology" to build an independent energy system, directly connecting wind power, photovoltaic generation, and energy storage systems to the factory. CATL's ultimate goal is to create a panoramic, integrated zero-carbon solution including green power direct supply, zero carbon parks, source-grid-load-storage, and grid-forming energy storage.
Used battery recycling is the last puzzle piece to achieve closed-loop management of the battery full lifecycle. Through recycling methods, CATL processes, purifies, and synthesizes metal materials such as nickel, cobalt, and manganese in used batteries, and recycles collected metal materials such as copper and aluminum through third-party recycling, realizing effective circular utilization of key metal resources needed for battery production. CATL has built a complete closed loop of "Production - Use - Cascade - Recycling," providing battery recycling, cascade utilization, and recycled material closed-loop services for cooperating automakers. Through scaled recycling and regeneration, raw material costs are reduced, feeding back into the price competitiveness of vehicle batteries, forming full-chain value sharing.
In addition, in overseas markets, CATL promotes vehicle-battery integration joint global expansion with Chery, Yutong, Geely, Dongfeng, etc. Overseas battery bases follow the rhythm of vehicle global expansion, providing global warranty, local services, supply chain support, and other services. Automakers going global no longer face battery adaptation, certification, and supply difficulties. CATL expands its global share following automakers going global, forming a globalized ecosystem binding.
The strategic significance of ecosystem co-construction far exceeds commercial cooperation itself. When CATL not only masters battery manufacturing but also controls battery swap networks, Battery Passport data (CATL cooperated with BMW in February 2026 to carry out an EU "Battery Passport" cross-border data pilot), and battery recycling full lifecycle management, it changes from a supplier simply providing parts into an infrastructure platform for the entire new energy mobility ecosystem. Automakers still play the role of building cars in this ecosystem, but key dimensions such as energy replenishment solutions, battery management, data services, and even user travel experience will be included in CATL's ecosystem system. This ecological-level binding far exceeds the product and price levels, forming a true "community of shared future."
© 2024 Bitauto.com. All Rights Reserved.
Bitauto (www.yiche.com and www.bitauto.com) is one of the most visited automotive websites in China. We provide detailed info on Chinese car brands available in your area. Please note that the information provided on this website is based on publicly available data and is for reference only. It may not be fully updated or accurate at all times.
