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Today let's talk about the battery industry.
The supply chain landscape of the current new energy vehicle industry is undergoing a disruptive reversal.
Many car manufacturers are accelerating their "reducing reliance on CATL".
This trend is not just empty talk in the industry, but is implemented in the new car iterations and supply chain adjustments of major car manufacturers.
Many top car manufacturers, who have long been deeply bound to CATL, are introducing diversified battery suppliers to break the exclusive supply pattern, with typical cases seen across independent high-end, new forces, and mainstream new energy brands.
Harmony Intelligence, which once used "deep binding with CATL" as a supply chain advantage, has completely reversed the cooperation model.
Previously, all AITO models used CATL batteries, with both parties locking in an exclusive supply agreement for a long time, which was a benchmark cooperation case in the industry.
But the 2026 new AITO M6 Pure Electric version completed the core supply chain switch and officially adopted Gotion batteries.
Luxeed and Stelato also completed battery supplier expansion simultaneously: Luxeed included Gotion and Sunwoda, and Stelato supplemented Gotion's capacity.
Completely ending the single reliance on CATL.
The adjustment of Li Auto, the benchmark of new vehicle manufacturers, is even more thorough, known as a landmark move in the industry "de-CATL-ization".
The older model Li Auto L8 adopted a tiered supply strategy, high and mid-spec models exclusively equipped with CATL batteries, only low-spec versions used other brand cells, CATL has always been the core support for its high-end models.
The new Li Auto L8 completed a full switch, all systems uniformly equipped with Sunwoda cells, the battery PACK was jointly built by the Li Auto and Sunwoda joint venture company, externally marked with Li Auto self-developed battery logo.
Xiaomi Automotive also started supply chain diversified layout, breaking reliance on a single battery supplier during the startup phase.
The flagship model SU7 Standard Edition adapts to CATL and BYD Fin Dream batteries, Pro and Max versions retain CATL high-end cells, spreading supply chain risk through dual supplier layout.
Arriving at the latest second sequenceXiaomi Pengcheng, differentiation went further. The new series fully no longer uses CATL batteries, but chooses CALB and Sunwoda batteries.
Former comrades, why have they become so different in mind while sleeping in the same bed?
Behind this, it is actually CATL's increasingly expanding domination, which made car manufacturers feel the dual fear of profits being hollowed out and souls being controlled.
Car manufacturers collectively started "reducing reliance on CATL", which is not an accidental supply chain adjustment, but a inevitable counterattack on the long-term imbalance of industry chain interests and misplaced discourse power.
Profit Black Hole: Who is working hard and sweet for whom?
In 2025, CATL's full-year net profit attributable to parent company reached a high of 72.201 billion yuan.
In the first quarter of 2026, the net profit attributable to parent company for the single quarter reached 20.738 billion yuan. This valueexceeded the total first quarter net profit of seven mainstream independent car manufacturers BYD, Geely, Chery, SAIC, Great Wall, Seres, and Changan.
Data shows that in 2026, the average profit margin of the domestic automobile whole vehicle industry is only about 3.4%, continuously at a historical low, while CATL maintains a sales net profit margin of above 17% for years, the difference is significant.
Simply put, many car manufacturers spend huge R&D expenses, bear the loss of intense price wars, carry the pressure of terminal market sales, and the total profit from hard operation for the whole year is still less than the profit scale of one enterprise CATL.
At the 2022 World Power Battery Conference, GAC Group former Chairman Zeng Qinghong said, "The cost of power batteries has accounted for 40%-60% of the cost of the whole vehicle, and it is increasing continuously, so am I not working for CATL now?"
Still ringing in the ears.
Transgression of Definition Power: My High-End, Defined by You?
If the uneven distribution of profits is the underlying contradiction that car manufacturers tolerate, then CATLcrossing boundaries to grab automotive high-end definition power, has completely touched the core bottom line of car manufacturers, becoming the key fuse for the breakdown of the relationship between the two parties.
According to industry division of labor, batteries are core parts of the whole vehicle, car manufacturers as the first party control the final definition power of vehicle positioning, product pricing, high-end attributes, battery enterprises only need to provide matching technical solutions and products.
But now CATL is gradually breaking industry boundaries, attempting to control the high-end standard discourse power of new energy vehicles.
At the 2026 April CATL Super Tech Day, CATL CTO Gao Huan publicly threw out controversial views, stating directly "For high-end new energy vehicles worth more than 250,000 yuan, using Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries is a disguised reduction in configuration, Ternary Lithium is the only optimal solution for high-end long-range models".
This statement directly denied the high-end product positioning of many car manufacturers, forcibly dividing the whole vehicle high-end grade by battery material, completely overstepping boundaries to interfere with car manufacturers' product definition.
In response, at the Beijing Auto Show, BYD Battery Business Group CTO Sun Huajun strongly counterattacked, clearly stating "Battery manufacturers do not have the right to define high-end cars", hitting the core contradiction of the industry.
Also giving Denza Z a free ad, this car has started pre-sale, starting from 680,000 yuan.
Track version domestic pre-sale price is even over one million (1.18 million, excluding optional).
This car uses Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries (BYD Second Generation Blade Battery).
In addition, CATL, relying on technology and capacity advantages, formed invisible industry rules: high-end cells have adopted limited supply and priority bargaining models for a long time.
This situation where Party A is counter-constrained by Party B, and core discourse power is encroached, is what all car manufacturers cannot tolerate for a long time.
But constrained by CATL's technology barriers and capacity advantages, for the past few years car manufacturers could only passively compromise and swallow their anger, while supply chain diversification became the only way out for car manufacturers to break the passive situation.
To break through the dual dilemma of squeezed profits and encroached discourse power, domestic car manufacturers started all-round "de-CATL self-rescue".
First, fully introducing second-tier and third-tier battery suppliers, building a multi-tier supply system, achieving supply chain risk diversification and cost control.
Previously, most car manufacturers adhered to the "Ning Stable Not Change" principle, prioritizing binding CATL to ensure quality, but now actively started supplier expansion.
Supporting Gotion, Sunwoda, CALB and other high-quality battery enterprises, forming a diversified pattern of "Main Supply + Second Supply + Third Supply".
Leapmotor Chairman Zhu Jiangming previously stated in an interview: "For each type of cell, we will configure multiple suppliers, on one hand it can enhance procurement bargaining power, on the other hand it can also balance different enterprise capacities, achieving comprehensive control of quality, cost and supply risk."
In addition to Li Auto, Harmony Intelligence, and Xiaomi mentioned before, many car manufacturers have completed supply chain adjustments.
At the same time, the technical iteration of second-tier battery manufacturers continues to accelerate, product cost-effectiveness advantages highlighted, quotes generally lower than CATL by about 10%, sufficient to meet the performance needs of home use and mid-range models, providing solid support for car manufacturers' supply chain replacement.
Through diversified procurement, car manufacturers effectively lowered battery procurement costs, reversing the passive bargaining situation of a single supplier.
Second, large-scale layout of battery self-research and self-production, grasping the autonomy of core parts, escaping external dependence from the root.
More and more car manufacturers realize that power batteries as core parts accounting for 30%-60% of whole vehicle costs, long-term reliance on external procurement, inevitably falling into passivity.
For this, top car manufacturers have invested huge funds to build self-developed battery systems, creating exclusive battery technology and capacity.
BYD is the first car manufacturer to achieve battery autonomy and control, its subsidiary Fin Dream batteries not only fully supply own models but also open supply to the outside, completely escaping external dependence.
Great Wall has SVOLT, Geely has Jiyao Tongxing, GAC has its own Yinpai battery, three car manufacturers already have a considerable proportion of batteries that can be supplied by themselves.
Li Auto deeply binds Sunwoda through joint venture mode, while promoting battery self-developed packaging technology, new model battery packs are all marked with self-developed logos, gradually mastering battery core packaging and adaptation technology.
SAIC Group and Qingtao Energy jointly developed semi-solid power batteries, completed multi-model adaptation testing.
Dongfeng then started layout on solid-state batteries from 2019, this year second half new generation semi-solid batteries will welcome mass production and assembly.
The core logic of car manufacturers' self-developed batteries is not only reducing procurement costs, but more importantly taking back the core discourse power of battery technology adaptation, product definition, cost control, completely ending the situation constrained by battery giants.
Facing car manufacturers' collective "de-CATL-ization" moves, CATL did not respond passively, but consolidated its leading position through two major measures: capacity expansion and C-end mind occupation, continuously reinforcing its own industry barriers.
But the overly dominant layout and boundary-crossing industry intervention also gradually consumed the cooperation trust of car manufacturers.
On one hand, CATL continues to increase investment in capacity expansion, maintaining absolute scale advantages.
The company continues to invest huge funds to expand domestic and overseas production bases, laying out capacity in multiple provinces and cities in China and overseas regions such as Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, diluting production costs through scale production, guaranteeing global supply ability, relying on huge capacity to continuously consolidate market share, guarding the industry basic position.
At the same time, it continues to lead in frontier technology fields such as solid-state batteries, condensed-state batteries, ultra-fast charging batteries, technology barriers are difficult to subvert in the short term, still the optimal choice for core batteries of high-end models.
On the other hand, CATL strives to deeply cultivate the C-end market, seize user minds, and create the public cognition of "Battery High-end Benchmark".
In the past, parts enterprises mostly focused on B-end car manufacturers, rarely faced terminal consumers directly, while CATL broke industry conventions, starting all-round C-end marketing layout.
In recent years, continuously sponsoring, embedding various popular variety shows, high-frequency exposure of brand image; setting up independent brand booths at major international auto shows, separating from car manufacturers to display battery technology and products separately, directly conveying "CATL Battery = High Quality, High Range, High Safety" brand cognition to consumers.
This C-end gameplay effect is extremely significant. When terminal consumers choose cars now, they have formed the habit of actively identifying battery brands, "Equipped with CATL batteries" has become an important bonus item for many users to buy cars, even many consumers default "Only CATL batteries are reliable, only high-end".
Data shows that in 2025, in high-end luxury electric cars over 300,000 yuan, "Ning Content" reached as high as 60%, and most were exclusive supply, consumers' mind binding, reverse prompting car manufacturers not dare to completely break away from CATL.
In fact, up to this step, no fault to blame.
But after speaking the statement "Using LFP over 250,000 is reducing configuration", CATL's boundary-crossing behavior directly triggered industry resistance.
A parts supplier attempted to forcibly define whole vehicle high-end standards, dividing car model grades by battery technology, intervening in car manufacturers' product positioning and pricing system.
Completely broke the division of labor boundaries between whole vehicle and parts enterprises.
This "Party B managing Party A" mismatched pattern is the bottom line that car manufacturers cannot accept.
Car manufacturers can tolerate CATL earning reasonable profits, maintaining technology advantages, but cannot tolerate their own product definition power, high-end discourse power being completely deprived.
It is also CATL's over-expansion and boundary-crossing that let the originally benign supply-demand cooperation be completely unbalanced, accelerating the process of car manufacturers' "de-CATL-ization".
Car manufacturers' "de-CATL-ization" has never been a thorough "breakup revolution", but is therational reconstruction of discourse powerof the new energy industry chain.
Objectively speaking, CATL's technology accumulation, capacity scale and quality control capabilities are still at the top level of the industry, cannot be completely replaced in the short term, high-end flagship models still need its core batteries to support product power.
Therefore, the core demand of car manufacturers is not to completely discard CATL, but to take back "Choice Power" and "Definition Power":
I can choose you, but I must have a backup; I use your battery, but the soul of high-end brands must be defined by me.
It is foreseeable that the next new energy vehicle supply chain will completely say goodbye to the monopoly era of "One Enterprise Dominance", stepping into the new pattern of "Diversified Competition, Autonomous Control, Equal Symbiosis".
CATL will still be an industry core player, but will no longer be able to exclusively enjoy industry dividends, controlling industry rules.
Car manufacturers, through supply chain diversification and technology self-research, gradually escape the predicament, achieving profit repatriation and discourse power return.
This "de-CATL-ization" wave will ultimately push the entire new energy industry chain towards a healthier, more balanced, and more sustainable new development stage.
The End.
