Gross Margin Rises Against the Trend, Sunwoda Escapes Power Lithium Battery Price War

Sunwoda is one of the few companies among those that have disclosed semi-annual reports to see an increase in gross margin in the power battery sector against the trend — increasing by 8.59 percentage points against the trend to 18.36%.

On August 27, Sunwoda released its interim financial report. The company achieved total operating revenue of 38.179 billion yuan in the first half of 2026, a year-on-year increase of 41.48%. Among them, the electric vehicle battery business contributed revenue of 14.134 billion yuan, surging 85.87% year-on-year.

At the same time, the energy storage system business is becoming Sunwoda's "second growth curve": first half shipment reached 14.70GWh, a year-on-year increase of 64.98%. Among them, overseas customer revenue accounted for more than 70%, and has become a major industrial and commercial energy storage brand in the German-speaking region of Europe. In terms of energy storage demand in data centers brought about by the explosion of AI computing power, Sunwoda's AIDC energy storage business orders surged nearly 30 times year-on-year, accurately hitting this high-growth track.

01

Power Battery Gross Margin Rises Against the Trend

Against the backdrop of overcapacity and continuous price wars in the power battery industry, Sunwoda submitted a report card of "increasing revenue and increasing profit".

In the first half of 2026, the electric vehicle battery business achieved operating revenue of 14.134 billion yuan, increasing 85.87% year-on-year; shipment volume reached 28.36GWh, increasing 76.37% year-on-year. More importantly, profitability improved — the gross margin of this business jumped from 9.77% year-on-year last year to 18.36%, increasing significantly by 8.59 percentage points. This means that the benefits of economies of scale and optimization of customer structure have emerged, allowing the company to hold the profit bottom line in the industry price war.

Of course, the most iconic performance is the HEV lithium battery. According to SNE Research data, in the second quarter of 2026, Sunwoda's HEV lithium battery installed capacity ranked first globally. This marks that its product performance and cost control have gained full recognition from customers.

The recovery of the gross margin of this power lithium battery against the trend, although not explained in the financial report, is likely closely related to the shipment of hybrid batteries. Because hybrid batteries have the characteristics of high threshold, high customization, and high added value, they can help avoid low-end price wars, and long-term binding with high-quality orders from top car companies helps greatly in stabilizing product premium and customer structure.

In terms of product layout, Sunwoda adopts a "Focus + Differentiation" strategy, focusing on prismatic aluminum-shell cells as the core, while synchronously laying out large cylindrical cells, soft pack cells, etc., comprehensively covering full scenarios such as passenger cars, commercial vehicles, ships, low-altitude aircraft, and embodied intelligent robots.

Regarding next-generation technology reserves, the company is advancing the R&D of new silicon-anode high specific energy batteries, lithium manganese iron phosphate batteries, sodium-ion batteries, solid-liquid hybrid batteries, solid-state batteries, lithium metal batteries, etc., and was the first to propose the "AI + Battery" strategy, using artificial intelligence to accelerate material selection, electrochemical system design, and process optimization.

02

Overseas Revenue Share of Energy Storage Exceeds 70%

If power batteries are the main force for growth at present, then energy storage systems are the new growth point that Sunwoda is exploding.

In the first half of 2026, Sunwoda's energy storage system shipment reached 14.70GWh, increasing 64.98% year-on-year; realized revenue of 1.77 billion yuan, increasing 76.21% year-on-year. But what is most worth noting is its market structure — energy storage system revenue comes mainly from overseas markets, overseas customers account for more than 70%, one can say that the bulk delivery of its core overseas customer projects directly drove business growth.

Financial reports show that in the European market, Sunwoda adheres to a brand strategy, having covered core markets such as Europe, Middle East, South Asia, with own-brand sales accounting for 80%. In the German-speaking region, the company has become a major industrial and commercial energy storage brand, with core channel coverage exceeding 95%, and was rated as EUPD Swiss Market TOP BRAND. This marks that Sunwoda has transformed from an "OEM" to a "Brand Owner" in the overseas energy storage market, with significantly enhanced premium ability and customer stickiness.

In terms of application scenario expansion, Sunwoda accurately stepped on the timing node of the explosion of AI computing power. With the construction of global AI data centers (AIDC) entering a climax, the company's AIDC energy storage business orders increased nearly 30 times year-on-year in the first half of the year. Relying on full-stack self-developed capabilities, Sunwoda has built a product matrix covering different voltage levels, comprehensively adapting to high-end application needs such as data center SST, HVDC, and UPS. Several key domestic and foreign projects have been landed, and have been recognized by multiple global AI top customers.

At the product level, Sunwoda continues to iterate around energy storage cells and system products such as 314Ah, 280Ah, 588Ah, 684Ah, completed the large-scale fire burn test of 5MWh liquid-cooled energy storage containers, Sunwoda stated that its safety, reliability and system-level solution capabilities continue to strengthen.

03

From "Product Going Global" to "Industry Going Global"

Supporting the high-speed growth of power battery and energy storage businesses is Sunwoda's increasingly mature global production capacity and service system.

During the reporting period, Sunwoda's overseas layout showed blooming at multiple points: Thailand battery production base phase one project has officially started production, phase two started synchronously; Hungary power battery production base, Vietnam consumer cell base construction are steadily advancing. At the same time, Sunwoda has established nine overseas marketing and service centers globally, building a localized service network covering key markets such as Europe and America, Southeast Asia, Middle East, etc. 

It can be seen that Sunwoda's "going global" is not simply a relocation of production capacity, but a strategic positioning to support global top car companies and energy storage customers nearby, which can not only effectively hedge geopolitical risks and trade barriers, but also significantly improve the response speed and service stickiness of overseas customers. From India, Vietnam to Thailand, Hungary, Morocco, Sunwoda's global production capacity map has taken shape, providing a solid foundation for the company's medium and long-term overseas business continuous volume increase.

In China, Sunwoda also takes customer needs as the orientation, adheres to the principle of nearby support to efficiently allocate resources, and multiple production bases have achieved scaled mass production.

In 2026, with consumer electronics demand continuing to decline and industry competition intensifying, the report card submitted by Sunwoda in the first half of the year is still remarkable — on the basis of shipment volume increase, Sunwoda pushed up revenue growth rate with the help of HEV differentiated high added-value products, while the landing of domestic and overseas production capacity ensures order delivery, and the multi-scenario product matrix helps it open up incremental space.

It can be foreseen that Li Auto's reliance on it will also deepen day by day, and Sunwoda's future is very worth looking forward to.