The world’s largest maker of electric vehicle batteries unveiled a new technology last month: a cell that runs not on lithium but sodium, a cheap and abundant material that can be extracted from salt.
“Innovation is in the genes of CATL,” said Robin Zeng, the Chinese company’s co-founder and chief executive, “and also the driving force of our rapid development.”
Based in the coastal city of Ningde, better known for its tea plantations, Contemporary Amperex Technology has risen in less than 10 years to become the biggest global battery group by market share, supplying carmakers from Tesla and BMW to domestic start-up Nio.
Shares in the company have gained 160 per cent in the past year, lifting its market value to almost $186bn — eclipsing that of every carmaker bar Tesla and Toyota, and more than its leading rivals Panasonic and LG Chem combined.
Zeng, born in a poor village in 1968 during the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, is now worth almost as much as Jack Ma, founder of Chinese internet giant Alibaba. His company counts nine people on the…
