Profited massively, these three words can only describe CATL's performance in the first half of 2026.

On July 24, CATL released its semi-annual financial report. For the first half of 2026, CATL reported operating revenue of 276.917 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 54.80%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 43.284 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.98%; net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was 39.013 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.44%. This means that regarding the core net profit attributable to shareholders, CATL earned 12.8 billion yuan more than the previous first half! In CATL's hands, cash and equivalents total approximately 340.58 billion yuan.

Looking at business segments, CATL achieved rapid growth in all three business segments. Among them, power battery systems generated revenue of 192.125 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 46.02%, accounting for 69.38% of total revenue; energy storage battery system revenue was 53.261 billion yuan, a significant year-on-year growth of 87.54%, accounting for 19.23% of total revenue; battery materials and recycling, mineral resources business revenue was 18.811 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 67.23%, accounting for 6.79% of total revenue. It can be seen that energy storage is the engine of CATL's growth this year.

From the perspective of gross margin, the gross margin of the power battery system segment was 20.63%, a decrease of 1.78% compared to the same period last year. The gross margin of the energy storage battery system was 23.96%, also down 1.56% from last year. The gross margin of battery materials and recycling, mineral resources business was 27.04%, an increase of 5.81% compared to last year. From the perspective of domestic and international markets, CATL's gross margin in the domestic market is declining, with a gross margin of 21.16%, down 1.78%. From the international market perspective, the gross margin is far higher than the domestic market, reaching 29.97%, an increase of 0.95% compared to last year.

From a market perspective, CATL's global leading position in power batteries is further strengthened. From January to May 2026, the global power battery market share was 40.2%, an increase of 2.2 percentage points year-on-year; domestic passenger vehicle installation share was 46.7%, an increase of 5.6 percentage points year-on-year, with domestic ternary battery market share reaching as high as 75.2%. Overseas markets broke through simultaneously, with overseas revenue accounting for 31.46% of total revenue, and overseas share steadily rising. Production capacity at overseas bases in Hungary, Spain, Indonesia, etc., continues to be established.

In the energy storage field, according to data from Xinlun Information, the company's energy storage battery shipments ranked first globally from January to June 2026. This is mainly due to AI computing power and new energy grid connection driving the concentrated landing of overseas and domestic energy storage projects. The energy storage side launched the 9MWh ultra-large capacity TENER, 6.25MWh Tianheng liquid-cooled energy storage cabin, and sodium-ion complete station system. Signed a three-year 60GWh sodium-ion energy storage long-term order with Hopeson, and landed large-scale independent energy storage benchmark projects.

Meanwhile, emerging businesses such as battery swapping, low-altitude eVTOL, and ships are being promoted in an orderly manner. Approximately 2,000 "Chocolate" passenger vehicle battery swapping stations have been built nationwide. The company's 5-ton class eVTOL has entered the airworthiness certification phase. Overseas heavy-duty truck battery swapping joint ventures have been established. Overall, currently CATL has sufficient capacity reserves. Existing battery system capacity is 525GWh, under-construction capacity is 764GWh, and capacity utilization rate is 94.86%.

Of course, for CATL, its growing profitability will inevitably attract criticism. This is because, looking at the current industry, the profitability of car companies is relatively too weak. In the first half of 2026, the average profit margin of the whole vehicle manufacturing industry was about 1.5%, creating a new low in nearly ten years. From the disclosed 2026 semi-annual performance forecast, the days of whole vehicle enterprises are clearly not good.

Except for BAIC BluePark forecasting a net profit increase of 14.65%-23.32% year-on-year, several other mainstream car companies showed significant declines: Haima Automobile (000572.SZ) forecast net profit decreased 0.64% to 47.61%, Changan Automobile, Great Wall Motor forecast decline both exceeded 57%, GAC Group forecast decline approached or even exceeded 60%, Seres forecast net profit year-on-year decline was between 151%-161.2%, turning from profit to loss. According to calculations, currently a terminal-priced model costing about 200,000 yuan, net profit per vehicle is only about 3,000 yuan.

Against this background, CATL will undoubtedly once again face the questioning of "car companies working for CATL". In 2025, CATL's operating revenue was 423.702 billion yuan, net profit attributable to parent company was 72.201 billion yuan. In the same year, the combined net profit of the five top car companies BYD, Geely, SAIC, Great Wall, Changan was 73.5 billion yuan, only 1.3 billion yuan more than CATL alone. And in the first quarter of 2026, CATL's net profit attributable to parent company was 20.738 billion yuan, while the combined total of the seven car companies Chery, Geely, BYD, SAIC, Great Wall, Seres, Changan was 17.5 billion yuan, the sum of the seven being less than CATL alone.

In June 2026, CATL Chairman and General Manager Zeng Yuqun, in a media interview, used the photovoltaic industry as a comparison to respond to car companies' complaints about its prices. He stated, "Now the lithium battery industry hasn't met the disastrous result that the photovoltaic industry has now, because CATL is propping up this price. As long as CATL brings the price down, it will be even worse than photovoltaic. Of course, this has not fully quelled outside doubts."

However, CATL also has grievances about the industry status quo. Zeng Yuqun previously stated that many people want to enter the battery industry. The first thing they do is come to CATL to poach talent or steal a bit of technology; then go to equipment manufacturers and material manufacturers, see what formulas they have, then combine them and say they have money to invest, and they get in. Zeng Yuqun pointed out that the imitation level of others (other manufacturers) might only be 60-70 percent, but they use low-price competition.

For example, in the procurement process of some enterprises, some decision-makers are only oriented towards completing current KPI (Key Performance Indicators), while the verification cycle for battery quality is long, and potential defects often appear only after the vehicle has been used for three to five years.

Zeng Yuqun believes that the reason why this low-price competition works is rooted in the impatient mindset and short-sighted behavior of some market participants. He believes that without CATL holding the front, the battery industry would be very chaotic. And looking at it from this perspective, it is actually not unreasonable for CATL, as the leader, to make money. What is scary is that if the leader doesn't make money, then this industry will be in danger.