Gasgoo Munich- What moved the needle in the new energy vehicle market this week?
CATL Earns Nearly 200 Million Yuan a Day in 2025
CATL released its 2025 annual report on the evening of March 9. Revenue climbed to 423.7 billion yuan — a 17.04% jump from a year earlier — while net profit attributable to shareholders surged 42.28% to 72.2 billion yuan.
Notably, CATL’s net profit margin hit 17%, putting daily earnings at nearly 200 million yuan. That profit figure alone likely surpasses the combined total of China’s listed automakers. By contrast, the broader auto sector saw profit margins slip to 1.8% in December 2025, with net margins potentially even lower.
CATL is also generous with dividends. The proposed payout for 2025 is 6.957 yuan per 10 shares. The company has distributed half of its net profit as cash dividends for three straight years; once this year’s payout is complete, total dividends will approach 100 billion yuan.
Image source: CATL annual report
Net cash flow from operating activities reached 133.2 billion yuan, up 37.35%.
On R&D, CATL poured 22.1 billion yuan into the business last year, steadily raising the ratio of revenue devoted to development. Over the past decade, cumulative R&D spending has topped 90 billion yuan, underpinning its lead in core technology and product innovation.
CATL solidified its global dominance in 2025. Lithium battery sales jumped 39% to 661 GWh. According to SNE Research, its share of the global power battery market rose 1.2 percentage points to 39.2% — the ninth consecutive year at the top — with overseas market share climbing to 30%. To date, its power batteries have been installed in over 24 million vehicles worldwide.
In the fast-growing energy storage sector, CATL also shone. Its market share for energy storage battery shipments hit 30.4% in 2025, claiming the global top spot for the fifth year running, with roughly 2,300 projects deployed worldwide.
Gasgoo Comment: Earning nearly 200 million yuan a day, this record-breaking annual report is a testament to CATL’s money-making prowess.
VW and XPeng's First Joint Model Yuzhong 08 Rolls Off Production Line
Volkswagen Anhui announced on March 13 that the Yuzhong 08 — the VW brand’s first full-size, always-connected electric SUV — has officially entered production. It marks the first model to emerge from the long-term strategic partnership forged in 2023, moving from a joint development agreement to mass production in just two years.
Image source: Volkswagen Anhui
The Yuzhong 08 is positioned as a full-size electric SUV, measuring 5,000mm long, 1,954mm wide, and 1,672mm high, with a 3,030mm wheelbase. Those figures target the mid-to-high-end market, where class-leading interior space is a key selling point.
Under the hood, every Yuzhong 08 comes standard with XPeng’s VLA full-scenario intelligent driving system, boasting 1,500 TOPS of computing power for enhanced Level 2 driver assistance. It is also the first VW model to feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8295P cockpit chip across the lineup, supporting over-the-air upgrades.
Powering the SUV is an 800-volt silicon carbide platform paired with CATL batteries, delivering a CLTC range of over 700 kilometers. The 800-volt architecture promises faster charging — a standard feature in China’s high-end EV market.
On safety, the Yuzhong 08 exceeds national standards in 31 crash test criteria. Before leaving the factory, each unit undergoes more than 4,500 functional tests across real-world scenarios and passes mandatory verification for its enhanced Level 2 driver assistance systems.
On the manufacturing floor, the Yuzhong 08 employs two new technologies: magnetic levitation nail feeding and the Virtual Meisterbock body-matching system. The former reinforces stability in core components like suspensions and battery packs, while the latter ensures consistency in build quality.
Volkswagen Anhui CEO Erwin Gabardi said the Yuzhong 08 proves the company’s manufacturing muscle. By leveraging advanced production systems and digital quality control, it is translating global high-end standards into tangible product strength.
Gasgoo Comment: The launch of this model signals that the Volkswagen Group’s "In China, For China" strategy is entering a phase of tangible delivery.
Voyah’s Hong Kong Listing Proposal Overwhelmingly Approved, Trading to Start on the 19th
Dongfeng Motor Group announced on March 9 that shareholders have overwhelmingly approved Voyah’s plan to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange by way of introduction.
Voyah is expected to complete its introduction listing on March 19 via a share distribution, marking it as the first high-end new energy stock from a central state-owned enterprise on the Hong Kong market. At the same time, Voyah is accelerating its product cadence in March, rolling out several major new models.
The move has been remarkably efficient: since submitting its application in October 2025, Voyah cleared multi-level approvals and compliance hurdles in just four months. The strong shareholder vote reflects confidence in the capital markets regarding Voyah’s technology roadmap and growth strategy.
As of December 31, 2025, Voyah held 1,874 granted patents and had 5,405 applications pending, placing it among the fastest-growing automakers for intellectual property. It ranked in the top 10 for independent innovation patents in China’s auto sector last year — and first among second-tier subsidiaries of central state-owned enterprises.
Image source: Voyah
Backed by full-stack proprietary technology, Voyah has established a full lineup spanning SUVs, MPVs, and sedans, organized around a "three flagship + SUV twin star" matrix. With 2026 pegged as a major product year, March sees a flurry of launches: the Dreamer Champion Edition, featuring Huawei’s Qiankun ADS 4.1 system, debuted on March 10; on March 17, the Taishan Ultra edition begins deliveries alongside the Black Warrior edition — the first mass-produced flagship SUV to sport a four-LiDAR setup with 896 lines.
Gasgoo Comment: With its Hong Kong listing secured and new models hitting the market, Voyah is poised to capture a larger slice of the high-end new energy segment.
2025 Revenue 112.3 Billion Yuan, Li Auto Profitable for Three Consecutive Years
Li Auto released its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financial results on March 12.
Deliveries climbed 17.1% quarter-over-quarter to 109,000 units in the fourth quarter, with pure electric models accounting for a growing share. Quarterly revenue rose 5.2% to 28.8 billion yuan. For the full year, revenue hit 112.3 billion yuan, keeping Li Auto at the top of the industry in scale.
Even as it pours money into strategic investments, Li Auto stayed in the black with a full-year net profit of 1.1 billion yuan. It remains the only Chinese startup to have topped 100 billion yuan in revenue and turned a profit for three straight years.
Image source: Li Auto financial report screenshot
Cash reserves stood at 101.2 billion yuan at the end of 2025 — the highest among Chinese EV makers. That war chest provides a solid foundation for long-term investments in R&D, innovation, supply chains, charging networks, and sales infrastructure, ensuring Li Auto can stay the course in a fiercely competitive market.
Buoyed by that financial strength, Li Auto is doubling down on core technology. R&D spending hit a record 11.3 billion yuan for the year — roughly 1 billion yuan per month — including 3 billion yuan in the fourth quarter alone. Half of that went toward AI, driving breakthroughs in proprietary chips, foundation models, and full steer-by-wire chassis. A software-hardware integrated foundation for embodied intelligence is now taking shape. Over the past three years, cumulative R&D spending has reached 33 billion yuan.
The next-generation Li Auto L9 is set to launch in the second quarter, debuting the in-house Mach 100 chip, the world’s first mass-produced steer-by-wire chassis, and an 800-volt active suspension system. It marks the first full payoff from three years of technological investment, promising a generational leap in product capability.
Gasgoo Comment: With revenue in the hundreds of billions, profits in the tens of billions, and a cash pile to match, Li Auto remains a formidable contender among the startup pack.
NIO Releases 2025 Financial Report, Achieves Quarterly Profit for the First Time
NIO unveiled its fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 financials on March 10. Operating profit hit 1.25 billion yuan in the fourth quarter — the company’s first quarterly profit since it was founded 11 years ago.
Deliveries surged 71.7% year-over-year and 43.3% quarter-over-quarter to 124,807 units, a quarterly record. That drove revenue to 34.65 billion yuan, up 75.9% from a year ago and 59% from the previous quarter — also an all-time high.
Improved profitability showed up across the board. Gross profit more than doubled to 6.07 billion yuan, while overall gross margin expanded 5.8 percentage points to 17.5% — the best since 2022. Vehicle margins hit 18.1%, a three-year high, and other sales businesses turned a profit for the third straight quarter with an 11.9% margin. Cash reserves rose by nearly 10 billion yuan to 45.9 billion yuan by quarter’s end.
For the full year, deliveries climbed 46.9% to 326,028 units, while revenue rose 33.1% to 87.49 billion yuan. Annual gross profit jumped 83.5% to 11.92 billion yuan, with full-year gross margins — both overall and for vehicles — reaching their highest levels since 2022, at 13.6% and 14.6%, respectively.
NIO issued guidance for the first quarter of 2026, projecting deliveries of 80,000 to 83,000 units — a 90% to 97% increase from a year ago. Revenue is forecast to reach 24.48 billion to 25.18 billion yuan, up 103.4% to 109.2%.
Gasgoo Comment: While the quarterly numbers show a profit, NIO still faces headwinds in coordinating its multiple brands and managing the long-term costs of its battery-swapping network.
