The maiden annual earnings report from the world’s top EV battery maker since its Hong Kong IPO last year showed its profit significantly beat investor expectations
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Key Takeaways:
- CATL reported its revenue rose 17% last year to 423.7 billion yuan
- The leading electric vehicle battery maker’s profit for the year surged 42% to 72.2 billion yuan
Irrational competition in China’s domestic car sector has turned a former blue-ocean electric vehicle (EV) market into a bloody sea of red ink. But while automakers lick their wounds and struggle to stay in business, one of their key suppliers, leading EV battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (3750.HK; 300750.SH), or CATL, delivered an outstanding financial report this month, including fast-rising profits that easily beat market expectations.
The annual report, the first since CATL’s $4.6 billion Hong Kong listing last year, lit a fire under the company’s stock, sending it 23% higher over four trading sessions to pass the HK$600 mark. That lifted its market capitalization by nearly HK$540 billion ($69 billion) to over HK$2.8 trillion, overtaking Alibaba and HSBC to become China’s second-largest publicly traded company by market value, trailing only Tencent.
Cost controls, efficiency enhancements
So, how exactly did CATL pull off such an upside surprise? The report shows its revenue rose 17% last year to 423.7 billion yuan, while its profit grew at more than double that rate to 72.2 billion yuan, up 42% from 2024. Investors were particularly encouraged by CATL’s fourth-quarter performance, including 37% year-on-year revenue growth to 141 billion yuan ($20.4 billion). Its profit growth continued to outpace revenue gains for that period, up 57% year-on-year to 23.17 billion yuan.
Notably, the company’s selling expenses increased by only 4.84% year-on-year to 3.74 billion yuan in 2025, substantially below the revenue growth rate, reflecting CATL’s cost discipline.
Concurrently, the company also boosted its efficiency with better utilization of its capacity. Of its 772 GWh in total capacity last year, CATL’s actual output reached 748 GWh, translating to a utilization rate of 96.9%. That represented a 20-percentage-point improvement from 76.3% in 2024, showing the company’s operational efficiency was improving as it boosted …