Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
It was symbolism That was evident last June when Emmanuel Macron, surrounded by factory workers, held a sleek lithium battery in his right hand and a mining torch in his left. It was in Douai, a city in northern France with a history of coal mining dating back to the 18th century. The city is now also the site of a battery factory, which will allow France to produce all its parts Electric vehicles locally. Macron declared that this factory represents an “economic and environmental revolution.”
Macron immediately acknowledged that France couldn’t do it alone: ”We brought in investors from the other side of the world. They transferred their technologies. They helped train people,” Macron said, pointing to a man next to him.
The man was Zhang Lei, the founder of Envision, a prominent Chinese company that makes wind turbines and lithium Batteries. Its battery arm is investing up to €2 billion in this Douai plant and, more importantly, has contributed the expertise needed to efficiently produce large amounts of energy. He and Macron grabbed markers and signed their names on the first battery to be produced in Douai. “Thank you, Mr. President, for trusting us and for doing exactly what you said you would do,” Macron said, looking directly into Zhang’s eyes.
In 2026, it’s okay to go to parties About batteries. Lithium batteries rotate Solar And wind into stable energy sources 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Battery-powered cars are shaking up the multi-trillion-dollar auto industry Elon Musk The richest man on earth. Lithium batteries have even won a Nobel Prize, and now the US government classifies lithium as a “critical mineral.”
The rising tide of lithium has lifted one group of boats more than others – the battalion of Chinese battery companies. After decades of quiet growth, companies like Cattle, BYDGotion High-Tech and Envision are now the world’s leading suppliers of electric vehicles and power grids. In 2024, more than 80% of the world’s battery cells will be produced in China, according to the International Energy Agency. Now these companies are expanding beyond China’s borders. In the past decade, they have built or announced at least 68 factories outside China, according to data compiled by WIRED and the Rhodium Group, a New York-based think tank.
Together, according to Rhodium Group, the plants represent an investment of more than $45 billion in the rest of the world. It also reflects a major shift in what manufacturing dominance looks like. “made in china“It was – and often still is – a sign of cheap labor, knock-offs, and $5 tools. Now it also means the latest technology assembled anywhere in the world.
“We think it’s a new phase,” says Armand Meyer, a senior research analyst at Rhodium Group. “We’ve never seen that in Chinese investments abroad.” By his calculations, 2024 was the first year that Chinese electric car and battery companies spent more money building factories outside China than inside it. “They are ready to leave the local market, and they are as competitive as traditional Western players, or even more competitive,” Mayer continues. “We think it’s just the beginning.”
Today, some of the world’s best battery research comes from Chinese universities and companies, says Brian Engel, chairman of NAABatt International, a US trade association for the battery industry. This is because China bet on it early.
When Engel toured a lab at a top engineering school in China in 2019, he saw more than 60 graduate students building and testing battery cells. To his surprise, he turned to an American academy who was on the tour and asked how many American universities they would have to gather together to find as many graduate students focusing on batteries as possible. “She said we couldn’t do it,” he recalls. “We simply couldn’t do it.”
So perhaps it is not surprising that Chinese battery companies are dominant, and that competition between them is fierce. Nowadays, local incentives and lower shipping costs make it possible to open a factory abroad more profitable than staying at home. CATL, the world’s largest lithium battery maker, said in a recent financial report that its profit margin was 29 percent overseas versus about 23 percent in China. Other Chinese companies, including Gotion and EVE Energy, have also reported higher profit margins overseas.
Macron is not the only politician to herald the arrival of the Chinese battery factory. The love fest is almost universal: Brazilian Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rode a BYD car with the company’s founder. The Spanish President held CATL’s CEO by the hand. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker shared the stage with the president of Gotion to announce a factory in Manteno, Illinois.
But problems arise when the plans turn into huge factories. Factory projects often include promises to hire locally, but sometimes companies bring in migrant labor. In Hungary, local media reported in July that CATL had laid off more than 100 employees at a factory, most of them Hungarian, prompting the municipality to launch an investigation and raid the factory. CATL is also facing protests and a lawsuit in Hungary over its water use and environmental footprint, issues that battery factories around the world typically face.
The situation may seem strangely familiar. When Apple built its technological empire at the expense of Chinese factories, the country had to consider whether it was benefiting from Apple’s victories or being exploited. With Chinese battery technology taking over the world, it is Chinese companies that are now raising these questions – about who ultimately benefits and who exploits whom.
What does she tell you?
Tell us what you think about this article in the comments below. Alternatively, you can send a letter to the editor at mail@wired.com.