CATL is getting complacent, earning 230 million yuan per day. In response to BYD's "Flash Charge", it said: They learned from me and it doesn't pose a challenge.
Earning over 2 billion RMB in net profit every day, the performance of "Ningwang" (CATL) has soared again.
After excluding one - time gains, the profit growth rate of the company's core business has even exceeded the revenue growth rate.
It's worth noting that CATL's annual net profit in 2025 was 72.2 billion RMB, and in just one quarter of 2026, it reached nearly 20.7 billion RMB - and this was achieved against the backdrop of rising raw material prices.
CATL's money - making ability is truly unique in the upstream and downstream of the automotive industry.
After the release of the financial report, CATL's stock price rose by more than 6% at one point today, and its market value once exceeded 2.09 trillion RMB, ranking among the top three in the A - share market value.
Strangely enough, although the company has more than 320 billion RMB in cash on its books, CATL still chose to conduct large - scale financing, and the financing cash flow soared by 11 times.
Is it... planning a major move?
Earning 230 million RMB a day, CATL had an explosive first quarter
In the first quarter of this year, CATL's operating revenue was 129.131 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 52.45%, and its revenue has exceeded 100 billion RMB for three consecutive quarters.
According to the earnings conference call, about one - third of this revenue came from overseas.
The performance at the profit level was even more prominent. CATL's net profit attributable to shareholders in Q1 was 20.738 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 48.52%, achieving high growth in sync with revenue.
Approximately calculated, it earns a net profit of 230 million RMB per day on average, and 160,000 RMB per minute.
What level is this? Taking BYD, the most profitable car company in the domestic automotive circle, as a reference, CATL may earn as much as BYD's annual profit last year (32.6 billion RMB) in less than five months.
Moreover, CATL's non - recurring net profit in the first quarter of this year was 18.093 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 52.95%.
This data excludes one - time gains and reflects the real growth of the company's core business profitability. Its growth rate is even higher than the revenue growth rate.
In terms of costs and expenses, CATL's operating cost in Q1 was 97.086 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 51.63%, and the growth rate was basically in sync with revenue.
Therefore, the company's gross profit level did not fluctuate significantly. The gross profit for this quarter was 32.04 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 55%.
The comprehensive gross profit margin in the same period was 24.8%, a year - on - year increase of 0.4 percentage points, and a quarter - on - quarter decrease of 3.4 percentage points compared with the fourth quarter of last year. The main reasons were the influence of seasonal factors and the change in product structure due to the increased proportion of energy storage shipments.
The continuous price increase of lithium carbonate and bulk commodities this year has brought certain cost pressure to CATL. However, judging from the year - on - year growth of the gross profit margin, the impact is not significant at present.
CATL revealed in the conference call that the company plans to optimize the supply chain layout, hedge the cost impact through economies of scale and product design. At the same time, the company will also implement a price linkage mechanism to pass on the part of material price fluctuations to the terminal price.
The company expects that the annual gross profit margin level can still remain stable.
In addition, on the same day as the release of the financial report, CATL also issued an announcement, planning to invest 30 billion RMB to establish a wholly - owned subsidiary - Times Resources Group (Xiamen) Co., Ltd. (provisional name).
According to the announcement, the positioning of this subsidiary is a professional investment, operation and management platform in the new energy mineral field.
CATL aims to further extend to the upstream key raw material field, integrate existing mining assets to ensure the safety and stability of the supply chain and build a competitive advantage in the integration of the industrial chain.
In terms of expenses, CATL's R & D expenses in Q1 were 5.314 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 10.38%. In terms of absolute value, it still maintained a high - level investment.
However, due to the scale effect diluting the R & D intensity, the growth rate of R & D expenses was still far lower than the revenue.
Meanwhile, the company's financial expenses in this quarter were 623 million RMB, while in the same period last year it was - 2.288 billion RMB (that is, income), and the expenses increased by 102.72% year - on - year.
According to the explanation in the financial report, the change in financial expenses mainly came from foreign currency monetary items, resulting in exchange losses due to exchange rate fluctuations.
There is actually an underlying challenge here. After the expansion of CATL's overseas business, it also needs to face certain exchange rate risks.
But overall, the company's financial situation remains stable.
As of the end of the first quarter, CATL's total assets reached 1.046329 trillion RMB, breaking through the trillion - yuan mark for the first time, a 7.33% increase from the end of the previous year.
The balance of cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period was 324.354 billion RMB, indicating a fairly abundant capital.
The net cash flow from operating activities of the company in this quarter was 33.681 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 2.47%. The net cash flow from financing activities in this quarter was 8.762 billion RMB, a year - on - year surge of 1149.24%. The financial report stated that this was due to "the increase in cash received from bond issuance this period".
With such abundant funds, the company still chose to conduct large - scale bond financing, which inevitably makes people feel confused.
Actually, from the company's investment trends, we can sense CATL's strategic intention. The net cash flow from investing activities of the company in Q1 was - 14.624 billion RMB, mainly used for the acquisition and construction of fixed assets, intangible assets, etc., and external investments.
This acquisition and construction of fixed assets represents the "ammunition" reserved by the company in advance for capacity expansion.
This leading company in the new energy industry chain seems to be planning a major move.
Where does the money come from? Where does it go?
CATL's overall performance increase mainly comes from the growth of its core business.
In the first quarter of this year, the total sales of the company's power and energy storage batteries exceeded 200 GWh, and the overall sales volume increased by more than 60%. Among them, the sales volume of power batteries accounted for about three - quarters, and the proportion of energy storage batteries increased to one - quarter.
According to SNE data, from January to February this year, CATL's global market share of power battery usage was 40.5%, a year - on - year increase of 1.8 percentage points, further consolidating its leading position.
That is to say, for every 10 power batteries sold in the global market, 4 come from CATL.
Its domestic market share of power battery installations also increased to 47.7%, a year - on - year increase of 3.4 percentage points.
CATL revealed that due to the strong demand in the domestic and overseas markets in the first quarter, the company's order production schedule was saturated, and the capacity utilization rate in Q1 was as high as 80% - 90%.
Therefore, capacity expansion for the company is extremely urgent.
Actually, as early as the second half of 2024, CATL began to gradually resume capacity expansion, and 2025 - 2026 is in the expansion cycle.
This early - stage layout comes from CATL's prediction of market trends.
The company believes that in the power battery field, the trend of vehicle electrification is becoming more and more obvious.
The electrification penetration rate of passenger cars has exceeded 50%, and the battery capacity per vehicle is also increasing. These two factors have driven the rapid growth of battery demand.
The penetration rate of commercial vehicles such as heavy - duty trucks is also increasing rapidly. The shipment volume of domestic heavy - duty trucks in 2025 has doubled year - on - year.
In the energy storage field, domestic policy support has been strengthened, and the market positioning and capacity tariff mechanism of energy storage have become clearer. It has become an asset with stable returns, leading to an explosion in domestic demand.
In addition, CATL also sees growth potential in the overseas market.
With the superposition of these factors, CATL has predicted a clear incremental demand, so it has advanced capacity expansion in advance to seize the market opportunity -
The company expects that by 2030, the global power and energy storage battery market is expected to reach more than 4 TWh.
In the new curve of the overseas market, many car companies' export - version models use CATL's batteries, and CATL itself is also accelerating.
Its Hungarian factory was put into mass production in Q1, and the European local production capacity has officially formed a closed - loop.
CATL revealed that although the cost of the current Hungarian factory is slightly higher than that in China, it has obvious advantages compared with the German factory. Currently, it is in the capacity ramping - up stage. The company will subsequently improve production efficiency and reduce costs by optimizing equipment selection and simplifying cell categories.
So overall, although there may be some external factors that will have a short - term impact on the company, "Ningwang" can still make adjustments through its capabilities and system, and the long - term guidance is positive.
Some people can't help but ask the question that everyone is curious about:
What does CATL think of BYD's release of the second - generation blade battery and flash - charging technology?
And "Ningwang" responded that super - charging is not a new challenge for the company.
CATL launched the "Shenxing" super - charging battery a few years ago. It is glad to see BYD "following up" on this technology route.
The executives admitted that in the past, CATL had reached cooperation with OEMs in this regard, and the results were good. However, objectively speaking, the popularity was not high enough, so it was not fully implemented.
CATL also said that BYD's technology release this time has attracted more attention in the industry and will also drive more OEMs to seek cooperation, which is also beneficial to CATL.
Therefore, it can be said that BYD has promoted the industry players to accelerate the layout in the fast - charging and super - charging systems.
As for CATL's layout, it will soon be unveiled in China -
On April 21st, CATL will release new products and ecosystems at its Super Technology Day event. It is said that each item will address the core pain points such as energy density, fast