Under US Scrutiny, CATL Rolls Out New Batteries And Investment

As of late 2024, the European Union imposed definitive anti-subsidy duties of between 7.8% and 35.3% on Chinese EVs, but stopped short of extending additional tariffs to EV batteries or key components. In recent years, CATL has been accelerating its localization strategy in Europe, operating a major plant in Germany, building a large-scale factory in Hungary, and advancing a joint-venture battery project in Spain with Stellantis.

Although its battery partnership with Ford remains stalled by political and regulatory scrutiny in the US, CATL has continued to roll out technological breakthroughs and overseas investment plans over the past week.

On January 30, London-based asset manager Schroders said its business unit Greencoat would work with CATL to explore projects in Europe, one of several commercial tie-ups announced during UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's visit to Beijing.

Schroders said Greencoat had signed a strategic memorandum of understanding (MOU) with CATL and Hong Kong-based private equity firm Lochpine Capital to develop an investment platform for battery energy storage systems across Europe.

On February 2, CATL released performance details of its 5C lithium‐ion battery, claiming it can combine ultra‐fast charging with unusually long service life. As of last June, the company has supplied one million units of this battery for Li Auto's Mega models.

In industry terms, 5C means a battery can be fully charged in about 12 minutes, compared with roughly one hour for a conventional 1C battery. Most batteries in the EVs made by Tesla, which sources its batteries from CATL, Panasonic and LG Energy Solution, are now 2C to 3C that can be fully charged in 20-30 minutes.

The company said the battery can endure about 3,000 full charge–discharge cycles at room temperature while retaining at least 80% of its original capacity, equivalent to a service life of about 1.8 million miles, roughly six times the industry average and potentially longer than a vehicle's design lifespan. Tesla's current batteries are typically designed to last between 300,000 and 500,000 miles.

It added that the gains stem from denser cathode coatings, self‐healing electrolyte additives and temperature‐responsive separators, alongside an upgraded battery‐management system that dynamically targets cooling to slow aging under high‐stress conditions.

On February 5, Changan Automobile and CATL unveiled a global sodium‐ion battery strategy and what they said was the world's first launch of EVs powered by sodium‐ion batteries, with a mass‐produced sodium‐ion passenger car making its debut.

CATL said the sodium‐ion battery, combined with its third‐generation cell‐to‐pack (CTP) technology and battery‐management system, can deliver more than 400 kilometers of pure‐electric range with an energy density of 175 watt‐hours per kilogram, while maintaining more than 90% capacity at −40°C.

Some experts have pointed out that although sodium-ion batteries are typically bulkier than lithium-based alternatives due to lower energy density, their superior cold-weather performance could make them particularly attractive in regions with harsh winters, including northern China, Northern Europe and parts of Canada.

Canada last month said it would allow up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles to enter the market in 2026 under most-favored-nation terms, subject to a tariff of 6.1%.

“Both the US and Europe have tightened scrutiny of new-energy supply chains over the past two years, and policy resistance facing CATL's overseas manufacturing plans is clearly rising,” Zhang Dachuan, an automobile columnist, writes in a recent article.“Boosting localization rates and strengthening supply-chain resilience have become urgent priorities.”