Zeng Yuqun: Not only to be the world's number one, but also to earn the world's respect

"We not only want to be the world's number one, but also to be the version 2.0 world's number one, which means being the world's number one in high-quality development. We want the whole world to respect us."

On the afternoon of November 20, the closing ceremony of the 2025 15th High-Tech Lithium Battery Annual Conference was held in Shenzhen. CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun delivered a thirteen-minute speech that pointed out the issues in the industry, emphasizing that the lithium battery industry should strengthen disruptive innovation and curb the phenomenon of "going overseas," stating emphatically that the Chinese lithium battery industry "not only wants to be the world's number one but also wants the world to respect us."

The following is a transcript of the main content of the speech

In 2024, the annual shipment of lithium batteries will enter the TWh era. I remember five years ago, I predicted that we would enter the TWh era in 2025, but in fact, it came a year earlier.

How will the Chinese lithium battery industry develop in the post-TWh era? We face many challenges.

Real innovation in the industry is still far from enough. Many companies have some minor innovations, but more are only focused on the present, wanting to make quick money, or are caught in endless price competition, unwilling to invest in research and development and quality.

Our only way out is to adhere to long-termism and continue to promote high-quality development in the industry over the next 15 years.

Specifically, we must first recognize the characteristics and attributes of this industry to see the correct path for long-term development. Here, I will share my thoughts from three aspects.

First, lithium batteries belong to the energy industry and must take on the responsibility of energy transformation.

In the past, most people believed that lithium batteries belonged to the transportation industry. Now, the major trend of "electrification of energy consumption and cleanliness of power supply" has brought comprehensive demand for batteries. Last week in Yibin, I said that the new energy industry has entered an era of all-domain incremental growth.

The penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China has exceeded 50%, with explosive growth in electric commercial vehicles, and electric aircraft and ships are on the rise. Not to mention that emerging industries such as data centers and robots are also creating new demand. At the same time, the proportion of new energy is also increasing, leading to strong demand for energy storage.

Energy storage is the most friendly regulator for the power grid. Among various energy storage technologies, electrochemical energy storage is the most economical and reliable choice for products with a duration of less than 8 hours.

Everyone should firmly increase investment in high-quality production capacity, ensure the connection between supply and demand, and stop wasting government and investor resources on low-end production capacity.

The new energy system is accelerating its construction. Now we should change our perspective and look at how future power generation, transmission, storage, and load can be realized from the perspective of new energy.

The second point of thought is that lithium batteries are a technology industry and innovation should be the core driving force.

The lithium battery industry is a technology-intensive industry, and only by continuously achieving technological breakthroughs can we open up greater development space.

Some people do not understand why anyone can make lithium batteries and why it is considered high-tech. In fact, if everyone truly understands the inside of a lithium battery, a 1 amp-hour battery has 1 billion particles in the positive electrode and about 700 million particles in the negative electrode. Each particle's ions must penetrate from the positive electrode to the negative electrode and return from the negative electrode to the positive electrode. It is very difficult to ensure smooth connections without side reactions occurring Therefore, making lithium batteries is easy, but making good lithium batteries is difficult.

The lithium battery industry has great technological potential, but it is severely homogeneous, and disruptive innovation is still far from enough.

At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen intellectual property protection; protecting intellectual property is protecting innovation. If the industry chooses to plagiarize, there will be no innovation, and the industry will lose vitality, falling behind in international competition.

I recently traveled to countries like South Korea and found that they are fully committed to innovation, focusing on many disruptive innovations. If we repeat the model of "expanding scale and earning a little more," we may not be able to maintain China's competitive advantage in the lithium battery industry in the next 15 years, nor can we shoulder the responsibility of energy transition.

The third point of consideration is that lithium batteries belong to the manufacturing industry, so there should be a reasonable profit expectation and a commitment to long-term stable growth.

Lithium batteries are a manufacturing industry that gathers various sectors and households. One of its characteristics is that it cannot have excessively high profits, especially in China's low-price competitive environment. However, the lithium battery industry must have reasonable profit expectations to pursue long-term stable growth.

We must insist on high-quality employment, allowing ordinary employees to achieve skill growth and wealth accumulation, enjoying the development of the industry.

The manufacturing industry emphasizes quality and technological iteration. To be long-term reliable, it is necessary to study full lifecycle reliability management and testing methods to ensure that lithium batteries can perform well over a 10 to 20-year cycle.

At the same time, significant technological iterations in the lithium battery industry will not exceed 5 years, and sometimes only exceed 3 years. The depreciation of production lines must align with the technological iteration cycle. Some production lines have a depreciation period of up to ten years; once technology changes, old production lines lose their market competitiveness. If new products cannot be developed, it may only look good financially in the short term, deviating from the original intention of high-quality development.

Finally, I want to say that from the triple perspective of the energy industry, technology industry, and manufacturing industry, lithium batteries are very important. However, we are not only competing domestically but also internationally. This year, competition among Chinese companies in major markets in Europe, America, and the Middle East is particularly fierce, especially in GWh-level large projects. Some companies have directly reduced prices by 30% from normal prices, promising a 50% increase in lifespan.

The development of China's lithium battery industry has reached the world’s number one position. It is time to think about how to promote high-quality development. So today, I stand here to say one thing, which I have also discussed with many leaders: establish a high degree of industry self-discipline and adhere to long-termism. By doing this, we can build a lithium battery industry that is not only upward but also virtuous.

China's lithium battery industry should not only achieve world number one but also achieve version 2.0 of world number one, which is the world number one in high-quality development. We must earn the respect of the whole world.

Shanghai Securities Journal

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