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

36Kr has learned from multiple industry insiders that Li Auto, the leading new power brand in the automotive sector, will introduce its third power battery supplier — CALB. According to Li Auto's preliminary plan, CALB's batteries will be first applied to Li Auto's pure electric vehicles.

Another person familiar with the matter stated that the Li Auto i6 is likely to be the first model equipped with CALB's products.

The 2026 Li Auto i6 also appears in the latest announcement released by 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. For the 2025 Li Auto i6, its battery suppliers are CATL and Sunwoda.

The Li Auto i6 is the core selling model of Li Auto, with deliveries exceeding 120,000 units in the first half of this year, contributing over 50% of Li Auto's total sales volume.

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

Before entering Li Auto's supply chain, CALB has long supplied products to leading new power brands such as XPeng and Leapmotor. In 2025, Leapmotor established a joint venture with CALB at an equity ratio of 49:51. Recently, CALB has also entered the supply chains of Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance and Xiaomi Auto.

Before introducing CALB, Li Auto had already arranged two power battery suppliers, namely CATL and Sunwoda. Among them, the battery project co-created by Li Auto and CATL is called joint development inside Li Auto; while the cooperation between Li Auto and Sunwoda is referred to as self-developed battery inside the company.

The cooperation between Li Auto and CATL started relatively early. Back when Li Auto's first model Li Auto ONE was released, CATL was already its core battery supplier.

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

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

Recently, Li Auto increased its capital by 2.65 billion yuan to Sunwoda Power. 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 through the 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 models under its product line. According to the official disclosure of Li Auto:

At present, Li Auto-branded batteries have been installed 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 in accordance with the product and delivery rhythm.

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

After the vehicle manufacturer's scale reaches a certain level, supply chain security has become a key issue for it. As the core component of the entire 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, and now Li Auto's introduction of CALB as the third power battery supplier is also to ensure the control of cost and supply security.

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

But in the end, Sunwoda entered Li Auto's supply chain one step earlier than CALB. An industry insider close to Li Auto said that one of the reasons is that Sunwoda has high 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 that Li Auto places high hopes on, including Li Auto L9 Lives, the new-generation MEGA, and Li Auto i9, are all released this year.

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

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

In fact, not only Li Auto, leading new power brands such as Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance and Xiaomi Auto have also made multi-supplier layout for power batteries.

The Zhijie and Shangjie brands under the Harmony Intelligent Mobility Alliance system have long been customers of CALB. This year, the AITO brand that was previously 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 officially announced the Longjia Battery strategic cooperation with CALB and Sunwoda Power, and the entire Xiaomi extended-range electric vehicle series — Pengcheng will be fully equipped with this battery system.

Similar to the previous "Li Auto-branded" battery cooperation between Li Auto and Sunwoda, in the Longjia Battery cooperation, Xiaomi takes the lead in the product definition of battery packs, deeply participates in the selection of cell materials, formula design and other links, while CALB and Sunwoda act as in-depth cooperating battery partners.

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

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