China’s CATL ties up with Toyota on NEV battery supply, new battery tech development

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Chinese EV battery giant CATL has recently forged partnership with Japanese auto group Toyota for the stable supply and further development of new energy vehicle (NEV) batteries, CATL announced on July 17.

Besides, both parties are going to explore a wide range of fields including the development of new battery technologies and battery recycling, according to the announcement.

(Photo source: CATL)

The development and evolution of battery technologies and a stable battery provision play crucial roles in popularizing EVs, both companies said. In the future, they will take concrete measures to improve the cooperative mechanism.

Through this broad-ranging collaboration, CATL and Toyota will be dedicated to developing more attractive EVs by exerting the battery manufacturer's strengths in battery development and supply and making use of the automaker’s expertise in EV battery R&D.

CATL forecast a net profit of RMB2,004,099,400 to RMB2,277,385,700 attributable to shareholders of the public company for the first half of 2019, a year-on-year leap of 120% to 150%, according to an announcement CATL released on July 15.

The battery producer attributed its anticipated profit growth to three main reasons: (1) the fast-growing new energy vehicle (NEV) industry boosted the market demands over power batteries; (2) company's strengthened market exploration made its battery capacity gradually released, thus improving the outputs and sales accordingly; (3) The continuous reinforcement on expense control lowered the ratio of cost to income.

The EV battery giant has kept expanding its partnership with OEMs during the first two quarters of 2019. Aside from the newly-agreed cooperation with Toyota, it also entered into an agreement with China's state-owned FAW Group about building a power battery joint venture. Moreover, it struck a deal with Volvo Cars in May to supply electric car batteries for the latter's next-generation EVs and Polestar car.