Battery Giant CATL Enjoys Profit Surge Amid Intense EV Competition
By Reuters | 30 Jul, 2025

China's leading EV battery supplier has seen profits jump 34% even as its gross margin slips as competition intensifies with rivals BYD and LG Chem.

Chinese electric vehicle battery giant CATL's net profit growth picked up in the second quarter, even as it came under pressure from a bruising EV price war in its home market.

Net profit jumped 34% from a year earlier to 16.5 billion yuan ($2.30 billion), accelerating from a 32.9% increase in the first quarter. Revenue was up 8.3% year-on-year to 94.2 billion yuan, after rising 6.2% in the first quarter, according to a stock filing on Wednesday.

For the first half of 2025, profit increased 33% while revenue rose 7.3%.

Fierce competition in China's auto market, the world's largest, has strained automakers, suppliers and dealerships, prompting the authorities to say they will toughen regulations to halt price wars. 

Gross profit margin at CATL's core power battery business slid to 22.41% in the first half from 23.48% a year earlier, its filing showed.

But its battery materials and recycling business booked a gross margin of 26.42%, more than triple the level in the first half of last year, contributing to a 1.57 percentage point increase in overall gross profit margin.

CATL should be among the winners from potential industry consolidation, Morningstar analysts said in a recent note, citing the company's market leadership in EV batteries.

CATL extended its lead in global EV battery usage with a 38.1% share in the first five months of 2025, up from 37.5% in the same period of last year, according to SNE Research.

Chinese EV leader BYD, which also makes batteries in-house, was second with a 17.4% share, up from 15.4% a year earlier, while LG Energy Solution's share fell to 10% from 12.1%.

CATL has sought to fast-track its overseas expansion and explore other avenues for growth.

It listed in Hong Kong in May, with most of the proceeds funding its upcoming battery plant in Hungary. 

CATL's lithium-ion battery joint venture in Indonesia is expected to be operational by the end of 2026, an Indonesian official said last month. 

Besides the launch of a new EV chassis with an integrated battery in December, the company invested in a robotaxi firm in June.

($1 = 7.1828 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Qiaoyi Li, Zhang Yan and Brenda Goh. Editing by Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)