NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto are all making bets. How can the 50-billion-yuan battery giant going public in Hong Kong break through the competition?
On July 30, 2025, Sunwoda submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, thus becoming the third lithium - battery enterprise after CATL and Eve Energy to seek a dual - listing on the "A + H" stock markets.
According to the company's prospectus, Sunwoda has topped the market in the field of mobile phone consumer batteries and ranked second in laptop batteries. It is a leading company in the consumer battery field.
Market information disclosed in the prospectus
Notably, the rapid development of Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd. under Sunwoda is remarkable. Not only did it achieve a growth rate of up to 83% last year, but it is also regarded as the "darling" in the primary market and among new - energy vehicle startups:
It has raised over 12 billion RMB in cumulative financing. The investors include well - known investment institutions such as IDG Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group, Source Code Capital, and the National Green Development Fund. It has also attracted major new - energy vehicle startups like Li Auto, NIO, and XPeng, as well as established automakers such as SAIC, GAC, and Dongfeng.
Its valuation soared to 30 billion RMB in the last round of financing.
This equity connection has also been quite effective: Sunwoda is an important supplier for Li Auto's core best - selling L series and XPeng's G9, which features fast - charging technology.
It is worth mentioning that Sunwoda established a cooperative relationship with Xiaomi as early as 2012, covering all major categories of Xiaomi's consumer electronic products. It is truly an enterprise in the Xiaomi ecosystem.
Even in 2024, it was reported that the third model of Xiaomi's cars would introduce Sunwoda as a supplier.
From being a leader in consumer batteries to a friend of new - energy vehicle startups in the field of power batteries, Sunwoda's transformation is indeed worth watching.
01 The King of Mobile Phone Batteries
In the late 1990s, the domestic consumer electronics market, such as mobile phones, rose rapidly, and Sunwoda emerged at the right time.
The company was founded in 1997 by Wang Mingwang and Wang Wei, two brothers from Maoming, Guangdong. At the beginning, it focused on the battery module (PACK) OEM business for 3C consumer electronics such as mobile phones. Simply put, it assembles components such as battery cells, protection boards, and casings into safe and reliable finished mobile phone batteries.
In 1999, just over two years after its establishment, Sunwoda won an order for mobile phone batteries from Konka Group with its technical strength, starting its path of rapid growth. Subsequently, Sunwoda entered the supply chains of well - known manufacturers such as Philips, NEC, Haier, and Lenovo.
In 2011, through cooperation with ATL, the exclusive battery - cell supplier for Apple's mobile phones, Sunwoda successfully entered the industrial chains of Apple and Amazon. At that time, Sunwoda accounted for up to 20% of the battery supply for Apple's iPhone 3 and iPod, marking a high - point in its development.
In April 2011, Sunwoda was successfully listed on the Growth Enterprise Market of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and its current market value exceeds 50 billion RMB.
With the explosion of the smartphone market after its listing, Sunwoda successfully expanded its business to domestic first - tier mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Meizu, and OPPO, becoming the leader in the mobile phone battery PACK field. Currently, its market share is close to 40%.
However, the company did not stop there.
In 2014, the company acquired Dongguan Liwei Energy Technology Co., Ltd., achieving vertical integration from battery modules to the core battery - cell segment. Currently, nearly 40% of the consumer batteries processed by Sunwoda use self - produced battery cells.
Although Dongguan Liwei is still engaged in the production of consumer battery cells, this was Sunwoda's first foray into the most core battery - cell R & D segment of the entire lithium - battery industry chain, realizing the company's transformation from integrated processing to core battery - cell production.
According to statistics, in 2024, Sunwoda ranked first in the mobile phone battery market, with a market share of up to 34.3%, and ranked second globally in the laptop and tablet battery market, with a market share of 21.6%. This transformation was a great success.
02 Entering the Power Battery Market
Entering the power battery market is another important move in its transformation.
At the end of 2014, the company established the well - known Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd. and began to enter the automotive power battery business.
The module workshop of Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co., Ltd.
Looking back now, this was not an early or opportune time to enter the market.
In 2017, signs of dominance by CATL and BYD in the industry began to emerge. The debt crisis of battery giant Watma made investments in the battery industry cautious. Many backward production capacities were phased out, and industry reshuffle became the theme of that year.
Against this background, Sunwoda chose to focus on hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) battery cells, which have greater technical difficulties and stricter requirements for service life, fast charging, and fast discharging.
Simply put, the core logic of HEV is to keep the engine working efficiently, and it selects whether to directly drive the vehicle with gasoline or generate electricity with gasoline to drive the vehicle according to driving conditions such as vehicle speed and load.
Schematic diagram of the HEV system
For HEV battery cells, during daily driving, HEV battery cells need to undergo continuous shallow - charge and shallow - discharge cycles. They discharge when starting and accelerating and charge when decelerating and braking. A vehicle may experience thousands of small - amplitude charge - discharge cycles in a day's driving.
In addition, when the vehicle is accelerating or climbing a slope, the motor needs to output a large torque quickly. The battery cells must release a large current in a very short time.
This puts forward higher requirements for the technical indicators of the battery itself, such as service life, charge - discharge efficiency, and power density.
Early on, the core "three - electric" systems of global hybrid technology were mainly monopolized by multinational companies, and few domestic enterprises made breakthroughs. Therefore, Sunwoda became one of the early domestic manufacturers to deeply layout HEV battery technology.
However, at that time, such a bold transformation was not favored by the market. Wang Wei, the chairman of Sunwoda, recalled those days:
"At that time, the stock price hit the lower limit directly. Everyone thought you were crazy. Many people were about to quit the market, and you just entered."
A few years later, the facts proved everyone wrong.
It took 3 - 4 years from development to mass production for Sunwoda's first HEV battery - cell product. It was mass - produced in 2019 and entered the supply chain of international giants like Renault - Nissan. Subsequently, it successively won HEV battery orders from mainstream automakers at home and abroad, such as GAC, SAIC, Dongfeng, Chery, and Volkswagen.
HEV battery cells have since become the foundation of Sunwoda in the power - battery field.
As of 2023, Sunwoda's HEV battery installation volume in hybrid electric vehicles ranked first in the Chinese market for the third consecutive year. In 2024, with a shipment volume of 1.3 GWh and a market share of 9.2%, it firmly held the position of the world's second - largest HEV supplier.
HEV market rankings
Although the HEV market is much smaller than the battery market for battery electric vehicles (BEV), Sunwoda accumulated high - rate fast - charging and long - life design capabilities during the development of HEV batteries. These experiences were successfully transferred and applied to extended - range electric vehicle (EREV) batteries.
In the extended - range electric vehicle (EREV) field, Sunwoda's most famous achievement was winning the order for the Li L8 in 2022, which opened the door to cooperation with other mid - to high - end automakers such as Volvo and Volkswagen. It also gave Li Auto a first - mover advantage in the EREV market.
The two parties started cooperation in 2017. In 2020, Li Auto invested 400 million RMB in Sunwoda for R & D and production. In 2023, Sunwoda even transferred 1300 core employees to establish a Li Auto division, becoming a firm ally of Li Auto.
After several years of development, in 2024, Sunwoda ranked second among global EREV battery manufacturers with a shipment volume of 7 GWh, firmly establishing itself as a leading player in this niche market.
EREV market rankings
It must be admitted that although Sunwoda ranked second in both the HEV and EREV niche markets, the combined annual shipment volume was only 10 GWh.
This is only the battery consumption of a battery - electric vehicle like the Tesla Model Y for two months. To truly grow, it still needs to find its position in the battery - electric vehicle field.
The scale of the segmented power - battery market
Sunwoda's choice is: fast charging
In 2021, Sunwoda's first ultra - fast - charging battery product, the "Flash - Charge Battery", won an order and was officially launched in September 2022. It is also the world's first mass - produced 4C ultra - fast - charging battery.
The XPeng G9, which was launched in the second half of 2022, is equipped with this product.
In the field of ultra - fast - charging batteries, Sunwoda did not stop at 4C.
At the Shanghai Auto Show in April 2024, the company launched the Flash - Charge Battery 3.0, increasing the peak charging rate to 6C and the average charging rate to about 4.5C. It can achieve a charging efficiency of "1 kilometer of range per second", reducing the time to charge the battery from 10% to 80% to only about 7 - 10 minutes.
Although Sunwoda has made achievements in