Chinese electric vehicle battery giant CATL intensifies its global expansion push as competition in its home market heats up. According to CnEVPost, the company plans to increase its planned overseas factories from six to eight in total.
Chairman leads charge with new planned factories
CATL’s intensified overseas expansion efforts are now under the supervision of Chairman Robin Zeng himself, along with four co-presidents with various assignments:
- Tan Libin – overseas sales
- Huang Siying – overseas infrastructure
- Feng Chunyan – overseas base operations
- Zeng Rong – overseas procurement
As mentioned, CATL plans to add two more overseas factories to the initially announced six battery plants in the following countries:
- Thuringia, Germany
- Hungary
- Indonesia
- Thailand
- Michigan, US (in partnership with Ford)
- Nevada, US (in partnership with Tesla)
- Spain ( joint venture with Stellantis NV)
- Morocco (under consideration)
Rising competition at home forces CATL to seek new markets
CATL reportedly sees fewer growth prospects in the Chinese market amid amplifying competition and price war.
At the end of 2023, CATL started to display a slogan that translates to “Whoever goes overseas is the hero of the company. Go out and go overseas” on its local employees.
Since then, many of its employees assumed that overseas expansion has become a primary focus for the management. True enough, the no. 1 document the president’s office released this year was a “mobilization letter” for expanding abroad. Notably, Chairman Zeng sent the letter himself.
As per the letter, the domestic market continues to get tougher, reducing CATL’s growth opportunity. Meanwhile, the Chinese battery giant believes that there is still plenty of room to grow in foreign markets.
CATL leads the global power battery market
The progressive yet slowing electric vehicle uptake continues to propel battery demand across the world.
CATL is currently the world’s leading power battery maker. Its battery installations reached a total of 259.7 GWh capacity in 2023, South Korean market researcher SNE Research revealed. This result indicates a 40.8% year-on-year increase from just 184.4 GWh in 2022.
It continues to dominate the global power battery market with a 36.8% share in 2023, enabling it to become the only battery maker to surpass the 30% threshold.
Its FY 2023 revenue grew 22% YoY to RMB 400.92 billion ($53.4 billion), as per the financial report it released on March 15. Meanwhile, its revenue reached a total of RMB 130.99 billion, or 32.67% from outside China.
CATL’s FY 2023 revenue from its home market was RMB 269.92 billion, or 67.33%. However, it represents a notable decline from its 76.59% record in 2022.
As growth in the Chinese market nears saturation, global expansion will be the next most crucial growth area for CATL. The higher the electric vehicle sales, the better CATL’s growth performance.
