CATL: Promoting maritime electrification and providing solutions for the global shipping fleet

On the morning of April 6, according to the UK’s Financial Times, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) is accelerating the electrification of shipping and vows to “spare no effort” to replicate its success in the electric-vehicle sector across the global shipping industry.

CATL currently holds a 37% share in the pure electric passenger car battery market and a 22% share in energy storage systems for power grids and data centers. The company has deployed batteries on about 900 vessels, mainly for near-shore scenarios such as China’s coastal areas, ports, and inland waterways.

CATL’s head of its ocean business, Su Yi (phonetic transliteration), said the company plans to expand its team size to more than around 500 this year. At present, the company’s focus is on developing batteries that meet “extremely demanding” requirements for operation on water, including longer-lifespan cells and safety in marine environments.

CATL has not disclosed specific sales targets. A spokesperson said the company is “very confident” in the market’s potential. In 2025, CATL achieved net profit of 72.2 billion yuan, up 42% year over year, driven mainly by demand for energy storage.

CATL is seeking cooperation with ports and governments to build an ocean battery industry chain from scratch. Su Yi said, “The company will spare no effort to invest in research and development, human resources, and materials to build this industry chain.”

The company began laying out its ocean battery business in 2017 and set up dedicated subsidiaries to handle the development of marine propulsion systems and the construction of shore-based infrastructure. At the same time, CATL is advancing a vessel battery-swap model to lower operating costs.

Although the cost of seaborne batteries is still higher than that of conventional fuel, the battery-swap model can reduce a vessel’s initial procurement cost. Over the past 20 years, battery prices have fallen significantly; since 2010, the cost of lithium-ion batteries has dropped by about 90%, driving the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.

However, research by Denmark’s Zero Carbon Shipping Centre in 2024 noted that, due to energy-density limitations, large-scale application of pure battery-driven oceangoing vessels remains difficult. The research suggests that “hybrid solutions” that combine batteries with internal combustion engines are a more feasible path.

The researchers are also evaluating fire and explosion risks in the marine environment, because the difficulty of maritime rescue is far greater than on land, and the requirements for vessel systems in maintenance and regulation are also higher.

CATL founder Zeng Yuqun (phonetic transliteration) has long focused on the shipping business. His undergraduate major was marine engineering, and afterward he switched to pursue further study in the electronics field. Su Yi said, “Marine engineering was the original major and passion of Zeng Yuqun.”

She also pointed out that driving industry-scale development depends not only on the technology itself, but also on achieving “system-level coordination” among ship design, shipyards, ports, and power grids—“and these barriers need to be broken.”

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