China’s market regulator has cleared CATL to acquire a stake in a battery plant built by Geely, a purchase that lands in the month the world’s largest battery maker recorded its sharpest fall in domestic market share this year.
The State Administration for Market Regulation listed the transaction among nine unconditionally approved concentrations for the week to September 6, publishing the list last Friday.
The parties are named as CATL and Zeekr Automobile (Shanghai) Co Ltd. and the target is Chongqing Yaoning New Energy Technology Co Ltd.
The filing does not disclose the size of the stake, the price or the completion timetable, and the regulator does not publish those details for unconditional clearances.
The Plant
Chongqing Yaoning was incorporated in December 2021 as Chihang New Energy (Chongqing) Co Ltd, with registered capital of 100 million yuan, and is currently wholly owned by Geely.
Geely Technology Group signed an agreement with the government of Fuling district in Chongqing in November 2021 to build a battery project there, with planned investment of about 8.5 billion yuan, or about $1.27 billion.
The project was first planned at 12GWh of annual capacity and later revised to 18GWh. An energy-efficiency review published by the Chongqing Development and Reform Commission in 2025 lists the main products as lithium-ion cells and packs, and puts completion in December 2026.
CATL is therefore buying into a plant due to be finished within three months.
Chinese regulators have tightened approvals for new lithium battery capacity, operating a dynamic capacity warning system and a cell-level survey of existing plants. Projects that have not broken ground have been suspended, while those already under construction continue.
On that basis the transaction is less about acquiring a factory than about acquiring a capacity approval that cannot currently be obtained by application.
CATL’s Domestic Share
CATL held 41.45% of Chinese power battery installations in August, on 32.54GWh, according to the China Automotive Battery Innovation Alliance.
That is down 0.89 percentage points from July, the largest monthly fall among the fifteen listed suppliers, and it follows a 0.37 point decline in July. CATL took 43.42% of the Chinese market across 2025.
BYD moved the other way, gaining 1.75 points to 20.98% on 16.47GWh. Together the two took 62.43% of installations.
The picture abroad is the reverse. CATL’s global share rose to 39.9% in the first half of 2026 from 38.2% a year earlier, according to SNE Research, on installations of 242.7GWh.
Carmakers Are Diversifying
The pressure on CATL’s domestic share comes as its largest customers reduce their dependence on it.
Xiaomi agreed a battery development partnership with CALB and Sunwoda Power on September 4. Li Auto said on September 7 that in-house batteries would be rolled out across its lineup from the second half of this year.
Geely is not leaving the business either. It consolidated its battery assets under Jiyao Tongxing in early 2025, and that unit ranked ninth in China in August with 1.80GWh and a 2.30% share, up 0.07 points on July.
Selling capacity that is still under construction while retaining a top-ten operating business is consistent with reallocation rather than withdrawal.
A Year of Deals
The Chongqing purchase is the latest in a series.
CATL raised about $5 billion in April by placing 62.385 million new H shares in Hong Kong at HK$628.20 each, a 7% discount, for global capacity expansion, its zero-carbon business and research.
It was the largest equity offering in Hong Kong this year, a year after its Hong Kong listing raised roughly $4.6 billion.
In August it agreed to inject about 4.1 billion yuan into Zhongheng Technology Investment for a 49% holding, paying 3.51 billion yuan in cash and contributing equity in a subsidiary valued at 588 million yuan.
Control of that company remains with its existing shareholder. Zhongheng Electric works in green communications infrastructure, transport electrification and smart power systems rather than battery manufacturing.
