CATL has emerged as the leader in long‑term battery durability, according to testing referenced by Morgan Stanley.
With global energy storage installations expected to rise from around 350GWh in 2024 to more than 900GWh by 2026, the bank warns that real‑world performance often falls short of industry claims. It highlights degradation control as a defining factor in achieving a competitive cost per cycle and in assessing the true quality of both cells and full energy storage systems.
Morgan Stanley’s sampling work across shared‑mobility fleets in four major Chinese cities shows CATL’s lithium‑ion batteries degrading far more slowly than rival suppliers. Across 12 EV models and 100 sample batteries, CATL‑powered vehicles (Model 11 and Model 12) retained roughly 400km of range after two million kilometres of use, while competitor-equipped models typically fell to 350km or below.
Long‑term field data reinforces this trend. In the Zhangbei National Wind‑Solar‑Storage Demonstration Project, CATL was the only one of four LFP suppliers whose batteries have never required replacement. After 14 years of operation, recovered cells still held more than 90% capacity, with identical test cells achieving over 6,000 full cycles. CATL also delivered the first LFP system rated beyond 12,000 cycles for the Jinjiang project, expected to operate for more than 20 years under local dispatch conditions.
CATL’s 587Ah large-format cell builds on this track record, combining degradation control, safety and system efficiency. Mass production began in June 2025, supported by high‑throughput manufacturing capable of producing more than 220,000 cells per day and delivering PPB‑level safety performance.
