"Over the past decade, against the backdrop of the global energy transition driven by the Paris Agreement, China's 'new three pillars'—electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaics—have become new export pillars." At the 2025 World Power Battery Conference held on November 12, Zeng Yuqun, Chairman of CATL (300750.SZ/03750.HK), an industry leader, stated that in the first three quarters of this year, the total export value of the "new three pillars" exceeded 900 billion yuan, with lithium batteries contributing nearly 400 billion yuan, accounting for over 40%.
Zeng Yuqun also mentioned that CATL alone "contributes nearly 60% of the world's nearly 200GWh lithium battery exports and creates nearly 150,000 jobs across its 13 major production bases worldwide." Currently, over 20 million new energy vehicles worldwide are equipped with CATL batteries, reducing carbon emissions by approximately 14 million tons annually, equivalent to planting hundreds of millions of trees.
Zeng Yuqun, reflecting on the past decade of development, said that this is not only CATL's growth trajectory, but also a microcosm of the high-quality development of China's new energy industry.
Faced with the daunting task of global energy transition, Zeng Yuqun proposed exploring new growth opportunities from four dimensions.
The first point Zeng Yuqun mentioned was technological breakthroughs. He noted that CATL has deployed a variety of cutting-edge battery technologies: its mass-produced fourth-generation lithium iron phosphate batteries comprehensively outperform the industry's mainstream second- and third-generation products in terms of high energy density, long lifespan, and high power; its fifth-generation products have already begun mass production, achieving new breakthroughs in energy density and cycle life; its ternary lithium system, with its leading performance, is widely used in CATL's Kirin and Xiaoyao batteries; its sodium-ion batteries significantly reduce reliance on lithium resources, improve safety and low-temperature performance, which is beneficial for the popularization of new energy vehicles in high-latitude regions of northern China; Xiaoyao's "dual-core" battery supports the free combination of multiple material systems, realizing battery "customization"; and its research and industrialization progress in all-solid-state batteries is also among the world's leading levels.
The second point is to expand into more application scenarios and create true "full-domain incremental growth." Zeng Yuqun mentioned that CATL is extending battery applications from passenger cars to commercial vehicles, electric ships, electric aircraft, and other fields.
Thirdly, innovative business models will unlock new value in energy services. Zeng Yuqun cited an example, mentioning that CATL is promoting a "vehicle-battery separation" battery swapping model, transforming batteries from commodities into services. CATL's "Chocolate Battery Swapping Alliance" has already covered 45 cities nationwide, and will build 1,000 swapping stations by the end of the year, with plans to build 30,000 stations globally in the future.
It's worth mentioning that on November 9th, the Aion UT Super, a "people's car" jointly launched by CATL, JD.com, and GAC Group, was officially released. The car offers two options: battery rental and vehicle purchase, with the battery rental/purchase option priced at only 49,900 yuan. Zeng Yuqun mentioned at the event that the car is based on CATL's Chocolate battery swapping system, using CATL's latest high-temperature resistant batteries, thus eliminating the need for water cooling, resulting in longer lifespan and higher safety. The battery swapping system is also flexibly compatible with solid-state batteries.
Zeng Yuqun stated that the ultimate mission of the new energy industry is to achieve a zero-carbon energy system. CATL is actively developing integrated wind, solar, and energy storage systems, creating zero-carbon industrial parks with direct green power connections, and has already established "zero-carbon models" in multiple locations. Regarding battery recycling, CATL has spearheaded the development of national standards for power battery recycling, achieving nickel, cobalt, and manganese recycling rates of 99.6% and lithium recycling rates of 96.5%, both among the highest globally. CATL has also launched the "Global Energy Cycle Initiative" (GECC) project in Europe, uniting global industry partners to promote circular economy transformation. He believes that the zero-carbon path will become the industry's "second growth curve."
Zeng Yuqun concluded by pointing out that the new energy industry is standing at a new crossroads, moving from high speed to high quality, and from partial breakthroughs to overall growth, ushering in a broader and more systematic era of growth.
