CATL's Customer Shuffle and Washington Scrutiny Keep Shares Pinned Near 52-Week Low

CATL fell 2.5% to 293.50 CNY, just 0.2% above its 52-week low, as Li Auto and Xiaomi widen battery sourcing beyond the market leader.

CATL shares came under renewed selling pressure on Thursday, with the world's largest battery maker shedding 2.5% to trade at 293.50 CNY — a level that leaves the stock hovering just 0.2% above its 52-week trough. The Shenzhen-listed equity had already stumbled earlier in the week, closing at 297.10 Yuan on Monday, and the latest leg lower took it to within striking distance of the 293.00 CNY floor touched during the session.

What is rattling investors is not any single operational misstep but a slow-burning shift in the customer base that has long underpinned CATL's dominance. A growing number of Chinese automakers are moving to widen their supplier networks or bring battery development in-house, a trend that market watchers say is eroding the company's pricing leverage and forcing a rethink of its margin outlook.

Automakers Chart Their Own Battery Course

The most concrete signal came from Li Auto, which disclosed on 7 September that it will roll out self-developed batteries across its entire model lineup. The redesigned Li Mega, previously reliant on CATL cells, is among the vehicles slated to make the switch. Li Auto is also committing 2.65 billion Yuan to Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery for an 8.79% direct stake, a holding that rises to 11.17% when affiliated entities are included.

Xiaomi has taken a similar path, broadening its procurement to four suppliers. Alongside CATL, the company now sources components from FinDreams, CALB and Sunwoda. For its new Sky Nomad series, Xiaomi is reportedly drawing on batteries from CALB and Sunwoda, with CATL left out of the picture entirely.

Beijing-Aligned Outlet Pushes Back on Defection Narrative

The chatter about a coordinated turn away from CATL has stirred heated debate within China's industrial circles. CNII, a publication aligned with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, moved to calm nerves on Tuesday, arguing that the automakers' moves amount to ordinary supply-chain diversification and routine steps toward self-manufacturing. In CNII's framing, the priorities for vehicle makers are securing delivery stability, keeping costs in check and differentiating their products in a crowded market — not abandoning the sector leader.

The stock has nonetheless felt the weight of the narrative. CATL is countering by trying to lock in fresh partners: on 6 September it signed strategic cooperation agreements with the likes of Taijin New Energy and Shenzhen Huake.

Overseas Expansion Proceeds Regardless

Operationally, CATL continues to push forward on multiple fronts. On Tuesday it reported the start of trial battery-cell production at its Debrecen plant in Hungary, a site designed to secure supply for European automakers and deepen local manufacturing in the region. Two days earlier, on 16 September, management sealed a technology cooperation deal with Egypt's BME to support the build-out of local battery-pack production with a planned annual capacity of 1 GWh.

Product development is advancing in parallel. At IAA Transportation 2026, CATL unveiled TECTRANS II, a new battery platform for commercial vehicles offering a range of up to 1,000 kilometers and engineered for megawatt-level charging.

Buybacks and Venture Bets Fall Flat

Capital management has been equally active. On 16 September the company bought back 3.1 million of its own A-shares for 947 million Yuan, according to media reports. A day earlier, it disclosed commitments of 1.62 billion Yuan to venture capital funds focused on technologies spanning artificial intelligence, renewable energy and robotics.

Those moves, however, have done little to lift sentiment. A Reuters report dated 18 September noted that authorities were examining whether senior CATL figures could join a delegation trip ahead of upcoming political engagements in Washington — a reminder that the company's push for U.S. market access remains under close regulatory watch, a factor market observers flag as an ongoing drag.

For now, investors appear fixated on the geopolitical backdrop and the steady recalibration of customer relationships, leaving CATL's technological and capital-market initiatives without much traction on the exchange.