Above the cycle, the strong always get stronger: The Ning Wang era behind CATL's 72.2 billion yuan net profit

（Source: Qizhi Caiguan Group）

From CATL’s 2025 annual report, you see not only the growth story of a battery company, but also a snapshot of China’s new energy industry rising on the global stage. The path CATL has taken is precisely the one that China’s hard-tech enterprises are most worth learning from.

When cycles rise and fall, the true mettle of a market leader shows; when storms never cease, you see the strength to go farther.

Author / Xiaoying

In 2025, the new energy industry moved forward amid noise and pain. The price-war smoke had not yet cleared, industry-chain profits were being reshaped, global competition grew increasingly intense, and countless companies repeatedly weighed scale and profitability, expansion and safety. Against this backdrop, CATL’s 2025 annual report looks especially weighty and forceful: revenue exceeded 420 billion yuan, net profit stood above the 72 billion yuan mark, operating cash flow surpassed 133 billion yuan, and it proposed dividends of 36.1 billion yuan. Its global market share of power batteries has ranked No. 1 for nine consecutive years.

While the industry was still discussing “how to survive,” CATL had already used data to prove: a real leader can ride out the cycle and even define it.

01

Excellent performance: steady revenue, surging profits, and high-quality growth showcasing a king’s resolve//

When the industry is broadly trapped in a growth dilemma of “winning volume by cutting prices,” CATL has charted an entirely different curve. CATL’s growth has long bid farewell to the old model that relied on pushing sales volumes, shifting instead to “driving growth by profitability quality, by structural optimization, and by core barriers.”

In 2025, the company achieved operating revenue of 423.702 billion yuan, up 17.04% year over year. Against the backdrop of the industry’s overall deceleration and increasingly fierce competition, this figure is not a runaway surge, yet it reveals a rare steadiness and resolve. Even more weighty is the profit performance: full-year net profit attributable to shareholders was 72.201 billion yuan, up 42.28% year over year, with profit growth nearly 2.5 times the revenue growth rate. Non-GAAP net profit (after excluding non-recurring items) was 67.532 billion yuan, up 40.15%, with the purity of profitability continuing to improve. In the fourth quarter, single-quarter net profit was 23.2 billion yuan, up 57% year over year, as growth momentum strengthened quarter by quarter. Converted into daily terms, the company’s average daily profit is nearly 200 million yuan—leaping ahead of the entire global new energy manufacturing industry.

Security from a financial standpoint is even more scarce. Full-year net cash flow from operating activities was 133.220 billion yuan, up 37.35%. Cash flow exceeded net profit by a wide margin, meaning every cent of earnings is backed by real cash. At period-end, total cash and cash equivalents plus trading financial assets were 392.5 billion yuan—nearly 400 billion yuan in cash reserves—acting like ballast, giving CATL the most composed choice-making power in a volatile market.

02

Two-wheel drive: stable power battery foundation, new start for energy storage, and expanded global growth space//

Behind the impressive performance lies the “two-wheel-driven, global layout” business framework that CATL has carefully built. In the interplay of motion and stillness, the strategy of offense and defense is clear.

Power batteries serve as the stable base and continue to write their dominance. In 2025, CATL’s power battery sales were 661 GWh, up 39.16%; its global market share reached 39.2%, ranking No. 1 globally for nine consecutive years. More importantly, overseas markets became profit strongholds, with overseas business gross margin at 31.44%, significantly higher than the domestic level. With the Hungary plant coming online and deep integration with major global automakers, CATL is evolving from a “China battery leader” into a “global energy technology core supplier.”

The energy storage business completed its transformation from an “incremental segment” to a “profit pillar.” In 2025, energy storage revenue was 62.4 billion yuan. System integration shipments grew 160% year over year, while its global market share reached 30.4%, ranking No. 1 for five consecutive years. Even more critical is that the energy storage business gross margin was 26.71%, surpassing power batteries for the first time, signaling that the company has successfully upgraded from “selling battery cells” to becoming a “one-stop energy storage solution service provider.” Its profit model is more advanced and more stable.

Power batteries defend the foundation for growth; energy storage pursues higher growth. In domestic markets, it takes root; in global markets, it expands room. With one defense and one offense, one internal and one external, CATL’s growth logic has long surpassed the limitations of a single product or a single market.

03

Research to build high walls: investing 90 billion over a decade, forging an unreplicable moat through technology, capacity, and an ecosystem//

How does CATL maintain its leading position? The answer lies in sustained investment.

In 2025, the company’s R&D expenses were 22.147 billion yuan, up 19%. Over the past decade, cumulative R&D investment exceeded 90 billion yuan, establishing an innovation system with six global R&D centers and more than 23,000 R&D personnel. Cumulative patents exceeded 54,000. From Kirin batteries and Shenxing ultra-charging batteries to sodium-ion batteries, solid-state batteries, and aviation batteries, its technology roadmap covers the present and targets the future, forming an intergenerational leading product matrix. Capacity planning also reflects extreme rationality. With existing capacity of 772 GWh and utilization rate as high as 96.9%, it delivers full production and full sales. Under construction capacity is 321 GWh, proceeding with orderly expansion rather than blind scaling. At the same time, the company has connected a “resources—production—recycling—reuse” closed loop. By lowering costs through the circular economy and ensuring supply-chain security, it forms a three-in-one moat of technology, capacity, and ecosystem.

04

Think in stillness, plan for far horizons: under the splendor lie challenges, and a rational view of the leader’s path forward//

Beyond stellar performance, you must also see the storms. For CATL, challenges are equally clear: upstream lithium carbonate prices rebound, and cost pressure rises again; competition in domestic industry intensifies, and Tier-2 battery manufacturers and automakers’ in-house battery projects keep emerging; and amid globalization, geopolitical issues and trade barriers still bring uncertainty. These are all real tests on the road ahead.

The difference is that these challenges are industry-wide common issues, not CATL’s unique predicament. In cost fluctuations, it has scale and a recycling system to offset them; when competition intensifies, it has technology and customer barriers to protect it; under global changes, it has sufficient cash flow and diversified layout to buffer risk. Risks are real, and the ability to withstand them—that is the leader’s most core value.

From CATL’s 2025 annual report, you see not only the growth story of a battery company, but also a snapshot of China’s new energy industry rising on the global stage. The path CATL has taken is precisely the one that China’s hard-tech enterprises are most worth learning from.

When cycles rise and fall, the true mettle of a market leader shows; when storms never cease, you see the strength to go farther.

1. CATL’s 2025 annual report (disclosed March 10, 2026)

2. CATL’s 2025 annual report summary (released March 10, 2026)

3. China energy storage battery industry development industry research report (released March 2026)

4. CATL’s 2025 profit distribution proposal announcement (March 10, 2026)

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