In Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4, I covered my visit to CATL in Fujian. I focused on the innovation aspects and the opening of their testing center ESVL. Thanks to CATL for flying me out and putting me up for that event.

In these last parts, let me go to what I know best, which is why certain digital businesses win and others don’t (over time). I’m going to focus on the strategy and competitive aspects. Note: This is not investment advice.

In 2026, CATL is the global leader of the EV battery business. And it has been for 9 years. They are in 44% all EVs in China and 40% globally.

Additionally, CTL is #1 in energy storage. And it has been for 5 years.

Here’s the headquarters.

Since its founding in 2011, CATL has grown into a global manufacturing ecosystem with 120,000 people. CATL’s engineering workforce alone has over 20,000 researchers, software developers, and electrochemical specialists.

So how did this happen?

How do you win this big this fast?

That’s the question for this article. Let me start with a quick recap of CATL’s rapid rise.

Yes, CATL was founded in 2011. But its predecessor ATL was actually founded in 1999.

1999-2011: ATL Jumps from Consumer to EV Batteries

Amperex Technology Limited (ATL) was founded in 1999 by Robin (Yuqun) Zeng along with Liang Shaokang and a few close colleagues. And yes, the L in CATL and ATL stands for Limited.

ATL initially operated out of Hong Kong. And Zeng and his team focused on manufacturing lithium polymer batteries for consumer electronics like laptops, MP3 players, and later, smartphones.

ATL was acquired by Japanese multinational TDK in 2005 for a reported $100 million. And Zeng and his co-founders stayed on to manage operations. Under TDK, ATL became a big global supplier for consumer products companies like Apple and Samsung.

In 2011, Robin Zeng and his vice-chairman, Huang Shilin, spun off ATL’s electric vehicle battery division into a standalone company. That spin-off became Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL).

That’s where the history for this company usually starts. But it’s important to think about the 2006-2011 period.

• Around 2006, an Indian car manufacturer named Reva approached ATL to explore replacing the lead-acid batteries in its electric vehicles with lithium-ion batteries. This early commercial interest demonstrated that there was a demand for lighter, higher-capacity batteries.
• In 2008, ATL established a dedicated research team to explore large-scale electric vehicle applications. This initiative was formally structured into a dedicated Power Battery Department.
• In 2008, ATL supplied batteries for a demonstration fleet of electric buses during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
• In 2009, the Chinese government designated electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries as strategic national industries. The government launched extensive subsidy policies and pilot programs to accelerate the development of the new energy vehicle sector.

Keep in mind that TDK was a foreign-owned entity, and Chinese policy directives favored domestic manufacturers for EV supply chain incentives. That plus the fact that automotive batteries require big capital expenditure and longer development cycles made TDK’s core consumer electronics focus a bad fit for EV batteries.

CATL was spun off in 2011.

2011-2015: CATL Catches the EV Wave

CATL set up its headquarters and flagship manufacturing facility in Ningde in Fujian Province. The initial factory footprint was small, focusing on localized production lines for domestic commercial buses and passenger cars.

This was an interesting place to set up. Ningde was Zeng’s hometown and it had long been an isolated and agriculturally focused area. I was there last month and it’s pretty (90% mountainous). But it’s also really quiet. It was a 2.9M person city (small for China) in 2011. And it is only about 3.1M today. Here’s a picture from the train.

CATL’s first big event happened in 2012, when they signed a strategic partnership with BMW Brilliance (BMW’s China joint venture). BMW selected CATL for the battery systems for its Zinoro electric vehicle brand. This partnership forced CATL to elevate its technology and manufacturing standards to meet German quality and safety requirements. And it gave the young company credibility and validation. Which its competitors BYD, Panasonic, and LG Chem already had.

By 2015, CATL had grown to a manufacturing output of 2.19 GWh, placing it among the top global power battery suppliers for the first time.

CATL’s total corporate headcount also surpassed 6,000 employees, with a heavy emphasis on chemical and mechanical production workers on the automated cell lines.

This was the early phase of the EV boom. CATL was definitely in the right place at the right time. And they jumped aggressively on this big wave.

And that is the first strategy lesson here. Being early and being fast can be a big part of winning.

I think about this like big wave surfing. You have to be in the right place when the big wave comes. And then you have to paddle like crazy on your board when it passes.

2015-2025: CATL Grows Fast and Goes Global

Over the next 10 years, CATL had a flurry of milestones and announcements. Here’s a summary:

• In 2017, CATL surpassed Panasonic to become the world’s largest supplier of automotive power batteries by sales volume.
  • Annual shipment volumes reached 11.85 GWh.
  • CATL broke ground on manufacturing expansions across China.
  • Headcount grew to over 14,000 employees.
• In 2018, CATL went public in Shenzhen.
• In 2018, CATL began going global and signed supply contracts with international automotive groups including Volkswagen, Daimler, and Jaguar Land Rover.
• In 2019, CATL opened and expanded major manufacturing hubs in Liyang (Jiangsu Province) and Xining (Qinghai Province).
  • Total employee count reached 26,000 people. Around one-fifth of its workforce was in R&D.
• In 2020, CATL finalized a high-volume supply agreement with Tesla to provide Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) battery cells for vehicles built at Giga Shanghai.
• In 2022, CATL began production at its first overseas manufacturing facility in Thuringia, Germany, to supply European automakers locally.
• In 2022, annual sales volume surged to 191.6 GWh, about 37% global market share.
  • That was a 10x increase in 5 years.
• In 2023, CATL had 3 of their factories listed as “lighthouses” by the WEF (and McKinsey & Co).
• In 2024, manufacturing expanded to 13 production bases globally.
  • These included Chinese hubs in Ningde, Qinghai, Liyang, Yibin, and Zhaoqing, plus expanding international operations.
  • Headcount reached 115,000 employees worldwide. That is a 10x increase in 7 years.
• In 2025, CATL built its second European mega-facility, a 100 GWh production base in Debrecen, Hungary, aimed at supplying European automotive lines.
• In 2025, total manufacturing capacity reached 770 GWh.

Overall, a pretty stunning rise in manufacturing capacity, headcount and global sales.

2015-2025: CATL Invests Big in Innovation. And Starts Making Strategic Moves.

Along the way, CATL was investing aggressively in R&D. I summarized this in Part 1 and Part 2. But here are a couple of examples:

• In 2021, CATL launched its first-generation Sodium-Ion Battery, targeting an energy density of 160 Wh/kg. This would later become their Naxtra brand.
• In 2022, CATL launched Qilin, its third generation CTP technology. By eliminating internal modules and placing liquid-cooling plates between adjacent cells rather than at the base, Qilin achieved a volume utilization efficiency of 72% and a gravimetric energy density of 255 Wh/kg. Note: this is for an NMC system.
• In 2024, CATL launched the Shenxing Superfast Charging Battery, bringing 4C charging speeds to affordable Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) chemistry. This architecture delivers 400 km of driving range in a 10-minute charge, transforming fast charging from a high-cost premium feature into an industry-wide baseline expectation.
  • This is actually really cool. LFP chemistry is historically terrible at fast charging because it has low electrical conductivity and slow lithium-ion diffusion rates within the olivine crystal structure.
  • CATL achieved 4C in LFP by modifying the chemistry. They applied a nano-crystallized LFP cathode material combined with a fast-ion ring graphite anode coating. This lowered the resistance at the electrode-electrolyte interface, allowing ions to intercalate (slot into the atomic structure) rapidly without causing lithium plating, which destroys cells.

During this period, CATL also made some interesting ancillary business moves:

• In 2015, CATL bought the world’s largest battery recycler (Brunp Recycling). This enabled a 99.6% recovery rate for nickel, cobalt, and manganese. And 96.5% for lithium. Note: This is from the black mass (the shredded active materials). Not the entire battery pack.
• In 2022, they launched Qiji, their battery swapping service for commercial vehicles.
• In 2022, CATL launched EVOGO, an automated passenger vehicle battery-swapping service for passenger vehicles. This is a lot more complicated than for commercial vehicles. You need a lot more standardization among different car types. And you need to cover a lot more locations. They will have 3,000 swapping stations by the end of 2026. Here are some pictures of one.

You drive into the tunnel. The floor opens beneath your car and replaces your battery.

The whole business is now called the Chocolate swap. And it’s an interesting business model.

• It dramatically lowers the cost of a car because you are basically buying the car but not the battery (which is 30-40% of the cost). The car is way cheaper and you rent batteries as a service.
• You can use different batteries for different types of trips (or weather). It becomes flexible.

Other news in this business:

• In March 2025, CATL signed a strategic partnership with NIO in premium EV swapping. CATL integrated its Choco-Swap technical standards into NIO’s mass-market sub-brands, such as Firefly, allowing the two networks to operate in parallel.
• In May 2025, CATL formed a consortium with five major state and private automotive OEMs (FAW, Changan, BAIC, Chery, and GAC) to jointly unveil 10 new vehicle models engineered to natively use the Chocolate Swap system.

And in 2024, they also launched Ning Service, for after sales service.

• Auto repair places are struggling to fix complicated batteries so they are providing their own after-sales diagnostic and repair service.

Here’s how they describe it:

But the biggest business move was CATL’s expansion into energy storage. Which I have summarized in previous articles.

• In 2018, CATL established its dedicated Energy Storage System (ESS) business division.
  • The manufacturing lines and electrochemical processes used for commercial electric buses and cars were adapted to utility-scale grid batteries.
• In 2021, CATL ranked first in global energy storage battery shipments for the first time, a market leadership position it has held ever since.

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Ok. That’s a summary.

How did they do this?

My simple explanation is in Part 6.

Cheers, Jeff

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Related articles:

• More High-Tech Flex by Huawei R&D (4 of 4) (Tech Strategy)
• 6 Big Events in AI Agentic Ecommerce (Tech Strategy)

From the Concept Library, concepts for this article are:

• Batteries and Energy Storage

From the Company Library, companies for this article are:

• CATL

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I am a consultant & keynote speaker on how to increase digital growth and strengthen digital AI moats.

I am the founder of TechMoat Consulting, a consulting firm specialized in increasing digital growth and strengthening digital AI moats. Get in contact here.

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This content (articles, podcasts, website info) is not investment, legal or tax advice. The information and opinions from me and any guests may be incorrect. The numbers and information may be wrong. The views expressed may no longer be relevant or accurate. This is not investment advice. Investing is risky. Do your own research.