On January 14, China Changan Automobile and CATL signed in Chongqing a five-year memorandum to deepen their strategic partnership, covering technology application, market expansion, business model innovation, overseas footprint and brand communications. The two sides will jointly move into battery-swap mobility, smart car robots, flying cars and embodied AI — frontier areas they say will inject new momentum into the new-energy vehicle industry.
Photo: CATL
The ceremony drew top brass: Zhao Fei, general manager of China Changan Automobile, and Han Wei, CATL's co-president of the market system, signed on behalf of both parties, witnessed by Chongqing Vice Mayor Zheng Xiangdong, China Changan Automobile Chairman Zhu Huarong, and CATL Chairman and CEO Zeng Yuqun.
China Changan Automobile is a centrally administered auto group newly established in 2025 with State Council approval, with businesses spanning complete vehicles, core components, auto finance and services. It is pressing ahead in future industries such as smart car robots and flying cars — areas viewed as part of “new quality productive forces” — aiming to secure the high ground in next‑generation automotive development.
CATL, a global leader in power and energy-storage batteries, remains formidable. From January to August 2025, it accounted for 36.8% of global power-battery installations by capacity, firmly holding the No. 1 spot. Output of energy-storage batteries also ranks first worldwide. Its power batteries have been installed in about 20 million vehicles globally to date, while its energy-storage batteries have been deployed in more than 2,000 projects. With core products such as the Qilin battery and Shenxing Pro battery, CATL's technological edge in energy and propulsion is evident.
Under the memorandum, the companies will leverage complementary strengths across the supply chain over the next five years and explore cross-industry, cross-scenario collaboration. In battery-swap mobility, they plan to drive standardization and scaled rollout; on new tracks such as smart car robots and flying cars, they will integrate R&D resources to speed breakthroughs and commercialization; and in embodied AI, they will chart pathways to fuse frontier technologies with the auto industry.
Photo: China Changan
Industry watchers say the tie-up between CATL and China Changan will streamline collaboration between power batteries and vehicle manufacturing, integrating technology, supply chains and market resources. Beyond giving both companies a head start in fields tied to “new quality productive forces,” it could push China's NEV industry further upmarket — and deeper into intelligence and globalization.
