CATL Executive Says: Making Cars Does Not Necessarily Mean Knowing How to Make Batteries

A senior executive at Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL), one of the world's leading electric vehicle battery manufacturers, has highlighted the technical challenges involved in producing automotive batteries, saying that companies capable of building cars are not necessarily capable of manufacturing high-quality power batteries.

The comments were made by Ni Jun, CATL's Chief Manufacturing Officer, during the company's 2026 CATL Quality Global Open Month event. His remarks come as more automakers are developing their own batteries or expanding partnerships with battery manufacturers from outside the traditional automotive sector.

“Making Cars Does Not Necessarily Mean Making Batteries”

Discussing the trend of automakers developing batteries in-house, Ni emphasized the difference between vehicle manufacturing and power-battery manufacturing.

“Making cars does not necessarily mean you can make batteries,” Ni said, emphasizing the importance of specialization in battery manufacturing.

According to Ni, power batteries have particularly demanding manufacturing requirements. One of the most important challenges is consistency among individual battery cells.

A typical electric vehicle battery pack can contain hundreds or even thousands of cells. If the cells differ significantly in capacity, internal resistance or self-discharge characteristics, those differences can eventually affect the performance and durability of the entire battery system.

Consistency Is a Major Challenge

Ni explained that manufacturing a single battery that meets specifications is not necessarily the hardest part. The greater challenge is producing extremely large quantities of batteries with essentially consistent performance.

He described this as a “barrel effect,” in which the weakest cell can influence the performance of the overall battery pack.

Even when individual cells each meet their respective specifications, differences between cells can become more significant when hundreds or thousands of them are combined into one system.

For an electric vehicle, this can affect factors such as battery life, usable capacity and thermal performance.

IT Home, citing Ni's comments, reported that CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun had also previously emphasized the importance of consistency in large-scale battery manufacturing, describing the challenge as producing billions of cells with the same level of quality.

Automakers Are Expanding Battery Development

Ni's comments come as the boundaries between automakers and battery suppliers continue to evolve.

Some car manufacturers are investing more heavily in proprietary battery technologies, while others are forming partnerships with battery companies that originally focused on consumer electronics or other applications.

The trend reflects the growing strategic importance of batteries in electric vehicles. Battery performance can influence driving range, charging speed, vehicle weight, cost and overall product positioning.

However, moving from vehicle manufacturing into battery production involves a different set of engineering and manufacturing challenges.

According to Ni, consumer-electronics batteries and automotive power batteries have significant differences, particularly regarding consistency requirements. A vehicle may use hundreds or thousands of cells, making large-scale manufacturing quality control critical.

CATL Also Comments on Solid-State Batteries

During the same event, Ni discussed the development of all-solid-state batteries, another major focus of the global electric vehicle industry.

He said that all-solid-state batteries remain at a relatively early stage and that large-scale commercialization is unlikely to happen in the immediate future.

One of the major technical challenges involves the interface between solid materials inside the battery.

Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries that use liquid electrolytes, all-solid-state batteries require close contact between the electrodes and solid electrolyte. Maintaining that contact during repeated charging and discharging remains a significant engineering challenge.

Ni said that solving a new battery technology requires progress through multiple stages, including science, technology, engineering, product development, pricing and supply-chain preparation.

He estimated that large-scale commercialization of all-solid-state batteries would require at least five more years, while stressing that the technology is still developing.

CATL Focuses on Existing Manufacturing Capabilities

Compared with all-solid-state batteries, CATL has also been working on battery technologies that can be integrated more readily into existing manufacturing systems.

According to Ni, sodium-ion batteries and condensed-matter batteries have a clearer connection with current production capabilities. He said sodium-ion and lithium-ion battery production lines can be compatible, while condensed-matter batteries can also make use of existing production facilities.

CATL's future production-line planning will take compatibility among different battery technologies into account, he said.

This approach could allow manufacturers to introduce new battery technologies without completely rebuilding existing production infrastructure.

Battery Manufacturing Becomes a Key Industry Battleground

The comments highlight how competition in the electric vehicle industry is increasingly extending beyond vehicle design and sales into battery technology and manufacturing.

For automakers, developing batteries internally could provide greater control over vehicle architecture, energy efficiency and supply chains. At the same time, specialized battery manufacturers have spent years developing large-scale production capabilities and quality-control systems.

The central issue, as highlighted by Ni, is not simply whether a company can produce a battery prototype. The more difficult challenge is whether it can manufacture enormous numbers of battery cells with stable and highly consistent performance.

As electric vehicles continue to expand globally, battery technology is likely to remain one of the most important areas of competition across the automotive and energy industries.

CATL's latest comments therefore put the focus on a fundamental question facing the industry: as more companies seek greater control over battery technology, how effectively can they translate research and prototypes into reliable, large-scale production?