Chinese Battery Companies Are Taking Over the World

Chinese battery companies are taking over the world.

What comes to your mind

when you hear something is made in China?

Cheap labor? Knockoffs?

$5 gadgets from Temu?

That's still true to some extent,

but in 2026,

it also means state-of-the-art Chinese technology

that's actually increasingly being assembled

somewhere else in the world.

The best example of that are batteries, the big ones,

that power electric vehicles and electricity grids.

They're really important to tackle climate change.

In 2024, more than 80% of the world's lithium battery cells

were produced in China, and they're not stopping there.

In the past decade, Chinese companies such as CATL, BYD,

Gotion High Tech, and Envision

have built or announced at least 68 factories outside China,

representing an estimated investment

of more than $45 billion,

according to data collected by WIRED and Rhodium Group.

That's a big shift

in what Made in China looks like in reality.

It's a new phase where Chinese EV and battery companies

are spending more money

building factories outside of China than within.

Why? First, China bet on lithium batteries early.

And now, some of the world's best battery research

come from Chinese universities.

Second, local incentives and low shipping costs

make it such that opening a factory overseas

can be more profitable than making them at home.

We're talking about 29% profit margins overseas

versus 23% in China for CATL,

the world's largest lithium battery company.

Many politicians have loudly welcome

Chinese battery manufacturers.

That includes French President Emmanuel Macron,

Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva,

and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.

But while factory projects

often include promises to hire locally,

sometimes they bring in migrant labor.

Last year, local media reported in Hungary

that after CATL laid off

more than 100 employees at a factory,

most of them Hungarians,

the municipality launched an investigation

and raided the plant.

This situation might sound awfully familiar.

When Apple built its electronics empire

on the backs of Chinese factories,

China was unsure whether it was benefiting

or being exploited.

As Chinese battery companies take over the world,

they're raising the same questions

of who is exploiting whom.

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