CATL energy storage battery sales volume reaches 18GWh in Q3

CATL achieved a revenue of 97.369 billion RMB in Q3 in 2022

On October 21, 2022, CATL released the third quarterly report of 2022. Data shows that CATL achieved a revenue of 97.369 billion RMB in the third quarter of 2022, with a year-on-year growth of 232.47%. The total revenue in the first three quarters of this year was 210.34 billion RMB, with a year-on-year growth of 186.72%. And the revenue in the first three quarters has far exceeded the revenue in 2021.

In terms of profitability, CATL’s net profit in the third quarter of 2022 reached a new high, with a single quarter net profit of 9.424 billion RMB, up 188.42% year on year. This means that CATL earns an average of 100 million RMB per day! In the first three quarters of 2022, CATL achieved a net profit of 17.592 billion RMB, a year-on-year increase of 126.95%.

The reason for the growth of performance is that the growth of business scale and production and sales volume drive the corresponding growth of operating income. The comprehensive gross profit margin of CATL in the third quarter was 19.3%, up from 18.7% in the first half of the year. The gross profit margin of power battery and energy storage in the third quarter was gradually improved.

However, when it comes to profitability, it is estimated that the growth of operating costs in the profit statements of major battery enterprises since this year is higher than the revenue. This is because the price of some upstream raw materials increases with the increase of sales, which leads to the increase of costs.

It is predicted that the price of lithium carbonate provided by lithium carbonate battery companies in the short term will fluctuate due to the mismatch between supply and demand. Next year, with the supply side lithium mine development capacity put into production, the supply and demand situation will ease.

With the continuous release of material production capacity in recent two years, the cost of raw materials other than lithium carbonate has further decreased, and the energy storage has increased significantly.

The sales volume of energy storage battery of CATL in Q3 was about 18GWh

CATL achieved about 90 GWh of battery system sales in the third quarter, that is, the average daily battery sales was nearly 1 GWh! Among them, the sales volume of power battery accounts for about 80% of the sales volume of battery system, so the sales volume of energy storage battery of CATL in the third quarter is about 18GWh.

Data shows that from January to August 2022, the cumulative installed capacity of CATL reached 102.2 GWh, accounting for 35.5% of the global market. Since this year, the growth of the global energy storage market has accelerated significantly, and the volume of energy storage business is also fast.

The gross margin of energy storage of CATL in the third quarter has recovered to a double-digit level, and the gross margin of new projects has improved; The demand for large energy storage and household storage business is strong, showing a rapid growth trend.

Moreover, CATL has signed cooperation with many major customers in the field of energy storage since September 2022. On September 1, CATL and CMCC signed a cooperation framework to cooperate in zero carbon data centers, distributed energy storage, virtual power plants and other fields. On September 4, CATL and SUNGROW signed a strategic cooperation agreement to jointly explore the global optical storage market.

On September 21, CATL reached a cooperation with FlexGen, an American energy storage technology platform and solution supplier, to supply 10GWh of energy storage products within three years.

On September 25, CATL and GCL signed a cooperation agreement to promote the rapid implementation of the project of integrated source network load storage base, and to cooperate in the fields of power battery recycling and cascade utilization.

On October 18, CATL announced that it had reached an agreement with Primergy, an American utility and distributed photovoltaic energy storage development operator, to supply batteries exclusively for Gemini photovoltaic+energy storage project.

The PV installed capacity of the project is 690MWac/966MWdc with 1.416GWh energy storage system. After the project is completed, it will become one of the largest PV energy storage projects in the United States.

The increasing trend of CATL’s global market share in the future is clear

As far as the power battery system business is concerned, the current industry demand continues to grow, and CATL capacity utilization is relatively saturated. With the potential pull of the decline of subsidies next year on the demand at the end of this year, the sales volume in the fourth quarter may increase month on month, depending on the situation at that time.

The comprehensive information includes communication with OEM customers. Once the electrification trend is determined, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles will increase faster than expected. 

However, the United States recently announced the implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which proposed that by 2024, American automobile manufacturers would purchase 50% of the key minerals in electric vehicles from North America or the United States Union, and by 2026 that proportion would increase to 80%. 

The previous market analysis generally believed that this policy might be detrimental to the export of Chinese battery companies, including lithium energy storage battery manufacturers, to the United States. The insiders believe that there are strong restrictions on the implementation and implementation of the policy, and the details of the implementation are not clear at present. 

CATL said that it has a good cooperative relationship with customers in North America and is working together to deal with it. At present, the overall impact on the development of the company is limited, and the future trend of its global market share is clear.

Progress of CATL’s latest products

On June 23 this year, CATL launched the third generation CTP technology product, Kirin Battery. The integration of this battery system has reached a new high in the world, with a volume utilization rate of 72% and an energy density of 255Wh/kg.

It supports a 5-minute fast hot start and a 10 minute fast charge, and can achieve a 1000km endurance of the whole vehicle. In particular, compared with Tesla’s 4680 battery system, the power of Kirin battery pack has increased by 13% under the same chemical system and the same size of battery pack. The product will be launched in mass production in 2023.

The first batch of CATL Kirin Battery released the cooperation of Kirin, Interworld and other models. At the same time, many customers are interested in Kirin Battery. At present, we are negotiating with customers on cooperation. It takes time from the verification of the model to the landing, and the overall situation is good.

On July 30, 2021, CATL released the sodium ion battery. The energy density of single cells of the first generation of sodium ion battery is 160Wh/kg, and that of single cells of the second generation is 200Wh/kg. At present, the industrialization of sodium ion battery is also progressing smoothly. It will take some time for the supply chain layout. CATL had negotiated with some passenger car customers and will officially mass produce next year.

In terms of large energy storage cell and super stay wire, CATL has always been leading the technology of large cell, but the design of single capacity should be comprehensively considered from the perspective of life, safety, reliability, etc.

Its internal corresponding products have route reserves, and the specific needs depend on customer needs. At the same time, the next generation of CATL super stay wire has been put into production, leading in terms of single line capacity, single factory scale, single GWh investment, product quality control, etc.