Li Auto introduces its third battery supplier, CALB to provide batteries for the Li Auto i6 | 36Kr Exclusive

36Kr has learned from multiple industry insiders that Li Auto, a leading new energy vehicle brand, will introduce CALB, the third power battery supplier. According to Li Auto's preliminary plan, CALB's batteries will first be installed on Li Auto's pure electric vehicles.

Another person familiar with the matter said that the Li Auto i6 may be the first model equipped with CALB's products.

The 2026 Li Auto i6 has also appeared in the latest announcement of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China. The manufacturers of the two battery assemblies are both Shandong Li Auto Battery Co., Ltd., and the cell manufacturers are Sunwoda and CALB respectively. The battery suppliers for the 2025 Li Auto i6 are CATL and Sunwoda.

The Li Auto i6 is Li Auto's best-selling model, with more than 120,000 units delivered in the first half of this year, contributing over 50% of Li Auto's total sales.

CALB is a domestic power battery supplier whose domestic shipment volume is second only to CATL and BYD, and it is also one of the few domestic manufacturers that are good at ternary lithium battery technology besides CATL.

Before entering Li Auto's supply chain, CALB has long supplied to leading new energy vehicle brands such as Xpeng Motors and Leapmotor. In 2025, Leapmotor and CALB established a joint venture with a shareholding ratio of 49:51. Recently, CALB has also entered the supply chains of Harmony Intelligent Mobility and Xiaomi Auto.

Before introducing CALB, Li Auto has already arranged two power battery suppliers, CATL and Sunwoda. Among them, the battery project co-created by Li Auto and CATL is called joint development within Li Auto; while the cooperation between Li Auto and Sunwoda is called self-developed battery within Li Auto.

Li Auto's cooperation with CATL started relatively early. As early as when Li Auto's first model Li Auto ONE was released, CATL was its core battery supplier.

In April 2023, Li Auto and CATL reached a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement. Li Auto's first pure electric vehicle MEGA became the world's first mass-produced model equipped with CATL's 4C Kirin battery. Last September, the two parties signed another five-year comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement.

Also last September, the joint venture between Li Auto and Sunwoda was registered and established, with a capital contribution ratio of 50:50 for both parties. The joint venture is used to produce Li Auto-branded batteries. Li Auto leads the design of battery products, processes and materials, while Sunwoda mostly plays the role of an ODM.

Recently, Li Auto has increased its capital in Sunwoda Power by 2.65 billion yuan. After the transaction is completed, the relevant entity of Li Auto will become the second largest shareholder of Sunwoda Power.

This year, the "Li Auto-branded" batteries developed in cooperation between Li Auto and Sunwoda have been installed on vehicles in batches.

On September 7, Li Auto officially announced that its self-developed batteries will fully cover all its models. According to the official disclosure of Li Auto:

At present, Li Auto-branded batteries have been equipped on Li Auto L8, Li Auto L6 and Li Auto i8;

In the fourth quarter of this year, the new generation Li Auto MEGA, the all-new Li Auto i9 and the 2026 Li Auto i6 will also be successively equipped with "Li Auto-branded" batteries according to the product and delivery schedule.

Among them, the first batch of the new generation Li Auto MEGA adopts CATL's 5C ternary lithium battery. Users who lock their orders at 15:00 on September 7 and after will enter the delivery batch equipped with "Li Auto-branded" batteries; the first batch of the all-new Li Auto i9 will also be equipped with CATL's 5C ternary lithium battery, and switch to Li Auto's self-developed 5C ternary lithium battery after the production ramp-up of "Li Auto-branded" batteries is completed.

After an automaker's scale reaches a certain level, supply chain security becomes a key issue. As the core component of the whole vehicle, the delivery and cost of power batteries have always been the focus of the automotive supply chain.

Multi-supplier layout is a conventional way for automakers to ensure supply chain security and reduce costs. Li Auto's cooperation with Sunwoda on "Li Auto-branded" batteries is out of this consideration. Now, Li Auto's introduction of CALB as the third power battery supplier is also to ensure control over costs and supply security.

An industry source close to CALB told 36Kr that as early as 2022, Li Auto had already communicated with CALB.

But Sunwoda eventually entered Li Auto's supply chain one step earlier than CALB. An industry source close to Li Auto said that one reason is that Sunwoda has a high degree of technical cooperation willingness and is willing to open part of its equity to Li Auto.

2026 is a big product year for Li Auto. The highly anticipated new models of Li Auto including Li Auto L9 Livis, the new generation MEGA and Li Auto i9 are all launched this year.

At the same time, the industry environment Li Auto is in is that competition in the automobile market is becoming increasingly fierce, and the rising prices of lithium carbonate and memory chips have pushed up the cost of the automotive supply chain.

Therefore, ensuring delivery and reducing costs are bound to become the more core issues for Li Auto, so the introduction of CALB has become a natural choice.

In fact, not only Li Auto, leading new energy vehicle brands such as Harmony Intelligent Mobility and Xiaomi Auto are also making multi-supplier layouts for power batteries.

Zhijie and Shangjie under the Harmony Intelligent Mobility system have long been customers of CALB. This year, the AITO brand, which was exclusively supplied by CATL for a long time, has also introduced two second-tier battery suppliers, CALB and Gotion High-Tech. CALB will supply 81kWh battery packs for AITO, which will be installed on the AITO M6.

Xiaomi Auto has previously arranged two power battery suppliers, CATL and FinDreams Battery. On September 4, Xiaomi Auto, CALB and Sunwoda Power officially announced the strategic cooperation on the Dragon Armor Battery. The entire range of Xiaomi's extended-range models — Pengcheng will be fully equipped with this battery system.

Similar to the previous cooperation between Li Auto and Sunwoda on "Li Auto-branded" batteries, in the Dragon Armor Battery cooperation, Xiaomi takes the lead in defining the battery pack products, and deeply participates in the selection of cell materials and formula design, while CALB and Sunwoda act as battery partners that provide in-depth support.

Under the extreme pressure of cost and competition, leading automotive brands including Li Auto, Harmony Intelligent Mobility and Xiaomi have successively embarked on the path of launching their own battery brands, procuring cells from second- and third-tier battery manufacturers, and implementing "penetrating management", which may enable automakers to have more say in the core component of power batteries.

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