There was symbolism everything was clear last June, when Emmanuel Macron, surrounded by factory workers, held an elegant lithium battery in his right hand and a miner’s lamp in his left. He was in Douai, a town in northern France whose history of coal mining dates back to the 18th century. The city is also currently home to a battery factory, which would enable France to produce all electric vehicle parts domestically. This factory, Macron declared, represented an “economic and ecological revolution.”
Macron was quick to admit that France didn’t do it alone: ”We brought in investors from the other side of the world. They donated their technologies. They helped train people,” Macron said, pointing to the man next to him.
This man was Zhang Lei, the founder of Envision, a leading Chinese wind turbine and lithium battery company. Its battery division is investing up to €2 billion in the Douai plant and, more importantly, has brought expertise in productive mass production. He and Macron grabbed markers and signed the first battery produced in Douai. “Thank you, president, because he trusted us and did exactly what he promised,” Macron said, looking straight into Zhang’s eyes.
In 2026, it’s okay to fool around about batteries at parties. Lithium batteries convert solar and wind energy into stable energy sources that operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Battery-powered cars are shaking up the multi-trillion-dollar auto industry and have made Elon Musk the richest man on Earth. Lithium batteries have even won a Nobel Prize, and the US government now classifies lithium as a “critical mineral.”
Rising lithium tides have lifted one set of boats more than others – the Chinese battalion of battery companies. After decades of peaceful growth, companies like CATL, BYD, Gotion High-Tech and Envision are now major suppliers of the world’s electric vehicles and power grids. According to the International Energy Agency, in 2024, more than 80 percent of the world’s battery cells will be manufactured in China. Now these companies are expanding beyond China’s borders. They have built or announced at least 68 factories outside China over the past decade, according to data compiled by WIRED and Rhodium Group, a Novel York-based think tank.
According to Rhodium Group, these factories represent an investment of more than $45 billion in the rest of the world. They also reflect a massive change in what dominance looks like in the manufacturing industry. “Made in China” was – and often still is – a label for budget-friendly labor, fakes and $5 gadgets. Now this also means cutting-edge technology installed anywhere in the world.
“We believe this is a new phase. We have never really seen anything like this in Chinese overseas investment,” says Armand Meyer, senior research analyst at Rhodium Group. By his calculations, 2024 was the first year that Chinese electric vehicle and battery companies spent more money building factories outside China than within it. “They are ready to leave the domestic market and are as competitive as traditional Western players, or even more competitive,” Meyer continues. “We think this is just the beginning.”
Currently, some of the world’s best battery research comes from Chinese universities and companies, says Brian Engle, chairman of NAATBatt International, the U.S. battery industry trade association. This is because China decided on it early.
When Engle visited a lab at a top engineering school in China in 2019, he saw more than 60 graduate students building and testing battery cells. Surprised, he turned to an American academic while on tour and asked her how many American universities they would have to add up to find that many graduate students focusing on the battery. “And she said we couldn’t,” he recalled. “We just couldn’t.”
So perhaps it’s no surprise that Chinese battery manufacturers dominate and that competition between them is fierce. Today, local incentives and lower shipping costs mean that opening a factory abroad can be more profitable than staying at home. CATL, the world’s largest lithium battery maker, said in a recent financial report that its profit margin abroad was 29 percent compared with nearly 23 percent in China. Other Chinese companies, including Gotion and EVE Energy, also reported higher profit margins abroad.
Macron is not the only politician who heralds the creation of a Chinese battery factory. The love festival is practically global: Brazilian Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rode in a BYD vehicle with the company’s founder. The President of Spain held hands with the Director General of CATL. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker shared the stage with Gotion’s president to announce the opening of the plant in Manteno, Illinois.
However, problems arise when the plans turn into huge plants. Factory projects often come with promises of local employment, but sometimes companies employ migrant labor. In Hungary, local media reported in July that CATL had fired more than 100 workers at a factory, most of them Hungarians, prompting municipal authorities to launch an investigation and raid the factory. CATL is also facing protests and a lawsuit in Hungary over water apply and environmental impact – issues commonly found in battery factories around the world.
The situation may seem strangely familiar. As Apple built its technology empire behind the backs of Chinese factories, the country had to reckon with whether it was benefiting from Apple’s victories or being exploited. As Chinese battery technology takes the world by storm, Chinese companies are now asking questions about who ultimately benefits and who exploits whom.
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