CATL's Net Profit of 72.2 Billion Yuan: Daily Earnings of 200 Million, Whose Money Did Zeng Yuquan Really Make?

Recently, CATL released its 2025 financial report, shocking the entire automotive industry. CATL’s total revenue for 2025 was 423.702 billion yuan, a 17.04% increase year-over-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 72.201 billion yuan, a 42.28% surge. This means an average daily net profit of nearly 200 million yuan. At the same time, CATL announced a record-high dividend plan of 31.5 billion yuan, distributing 69.57 yuan (tax included) per 10 shares, accounting for 44% of the full-year net profit.

Following this excellent financial report, CATL’s stock price soared. It rose from 348.84 yuan on March 9 to 408.64 yuan on March 16, a 17.1% increase. Its latest market value reached 1.864 trillion yuan. This firmly places CATL among the top market caps in A-shares, second only to ICBC, CCB, ABC, PetroChina, China Mobile, and CNOOC, ranking seventh. Even including H-shares and U.S.-listed Chinese stocks, CATL remains the eighth-largest by market value. It is the only private enterprise in A-shares with a market cap exceeding one trillion yuan that is not a state-owned enterprise. Given the recent stock price increase, it is expected to become the first private company to surpass 2 trillion yuan in market value.

The steady rise in CATL’s stock price also solidifies founder Zeng Yuqun’s position as the fourth richest person on the Hurun Rich List. In the recently published Hurun China Rich List, Zeng was ranked fourth with a wealth of 380 billion yuan. The top three are Zhang Yiming, Zhong Shanshan, and Ma Huateng. Compared to Ma Huateng’s 465 billion yuan, Zeng still has a 75 billion yuan gap, but he holds a 70 billion yuan advantage over Ding Lei, who is fifth with 310 billion yuan.

The cutoff date for this list is January 15, 2026. At that time, CATL’s stock price was only 353.75 yuan, and since then, it has risen by about 55 yuan per share. Based on the real-time stock price on March 16, Zeng Yuqun’s 22.45% stake is worth approximately 418.5 billion yuan, further narrowing the gap with Ma Huateng, with a position of “sitting fourth and looking third.”

Continuously Rising Net Profit Margin

CATL’s performance in 2025 was outstanding, especially in the fourth quarter. Revenue in Q4 reached 140.6 billion yuan, up 36.58% year-over-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 23.17 billion yuan, up 57.13%. This quarter’s revenue growth was the highest since Q2 2023, and net profit growth also hit a new high since Q2 2023. In contrast, Q4 2024 saw revenue decline by 3.08%, but net profit increased by 13.62%.

The significant increase in net profit and net profit margin is directly related. In 2025, CATL’s gross margin was 26.27%, up 1.83 percentage points from 24.44% last year, reaching a four-year high. However, it still fell sharply from 36.29% in 2017 by over 10 percentage points. The net profit margin in 2025 was 18.12%, also a new high since 2017, up 3.2 percentage points from 14.92% in 2024, nearly doubling the increase of gross margin. The 18.12% net margin almost approaches the 20.97% peak in 2017.

Breaking down by quarter in 2025, CATL’s gross margin and net profit margin fluctuated. The quarterly gross margins were 24.41%, 25.58%, 25.80%, and 28.21%, with the first and fourth quarters differing by nearly 4 percentage points. Net profit margins varied less, at 17.55%, 18.59%, 19.13%, and 17.41%. Interestingly, the quarter with the highest net profit did not have the highest net margin; instead, the fourth quarter had the lowest net margin among all four.

Since 2018, CATL’s net profit margin has increased significantly, from 12.62% in 2018 and 10.95% in 2019, to nearly 8 percentage points higher over the past four years. In 2022, the net margin dropped to a low of 10.18%, but then steadily increased over the next three years to 11.66%, 14.92%, and 18.12%, showing a clear upward trend with substantial growth.

The sharp increase in gross and net profit margins is closely related to its high-margin energy storage battery business and expanding overseas markets. Revenue from energy storage batteries reached 89 billion yuan in 2025, accounting for 14.7% of total revenue, with a gross margin of 26.71%, higher than the overall gross margin. Notably, overseas energy storage batteries had a gross margin of 31.44%, far above the overall level, significantly boosting overall profitability.

CATL holds a 39.2% global market share in power batteries, maintaining the top position worldwide for nine consecutive years, and retains pricing power amid industry price wars. Its scale advantage also improves capacity utilization. In 2025, capacity reached 772 GWh, with a utilization rate of 96.9%, up over 20 percentage points year-over-year. Total lithium-ion battery sales were 661 GWh, up 39.16%, with unit manufacturing costs continuously decreasing and fixed costs being significantly spread out. Operating costs grew by only 14.20%, lower than revenue growth of 17.04%. The proportion of direct materials decreased from 76.48% to 71.79%, reflecting effective supply chain and process optimization.

At the same time, CATL emphasizes cost reduction and efficiency improvements. Its expense ratio for 2025 was 7.91%, down 0.32 percentage points from the previous year, benefiting from scale effects. The combined sales, management, and financial expenses accounted for only 1.76% of revenue, down 30.1% year-over-year, demonstrating precise cost control and profit margin expansion. These multiple factors have contributed to CATL’s net profit margin soaring to 18.12%.

Net Profit Surpasses Automakers

How impressive is CATL’s net profit of 72.201 billion yuan?

Compared to global automakers, few companies can match CATL’s net profit. Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, earned about 164.9 billion yuan in net profit in 2025. Volkswagen Group’s net profit was around 100 billion yuan. Tesla, the highest market cap globally, earned approximately $3.794 billion (about 26 billion yuan) in 2025. CATL’s net profit is much larger than Toyota’s and close enough to catch up with Volkswagen. It is even 2.8 times Tesla’s net profit in 2025.

The most profitable domestic automaker is BYD, with a projected net profit of up to 42 billion yuan in 2025, still 30 billion yuan less than CATL. This means CATL’s net profit alone exceeds the combined profits of more than 13 listed A-share car companies, not to mention new entrants like NIO and Xpeng, which are still losing money.

Automotive media expert Zhang Zhiyong believes that CATL’s advantage is not that BYD’s blade batteries are inferior, but that CATL is more “focused,” dedicating all its energy to energy storage. BYD’s business is more diversified. “BYD’s blade batteries excel in safety, energy density, and cost control, and even Tesla is a customer. BYD makes both cars and batteries, which disperses resources. Since its founding, CATL has only made batteries, concentrating its efforts. Almost all new energy vehicles from NIO, Xpeng, Li Auto, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and others cooperate with CATL. There are even cases where Xpeng’s top executives visit to queue for batteries, with products in high demand. This professional focus has allowed CATL to maximize scale advantages.”

A major reason CATL makes more money than automakers is its obvious net profit margin advantage. Its net margin of 18.12% is significantly higher than the average 4% for automakers. Besides BYD and Li Auto, which have relatively high margins, most other automakers hover around 4%. Li Auto’s net margin in 2025 sharply dropped from 5.57% in 2024 to 1.01%, with net profit plunging 86% to just 1.124 billion yuan. In 2024 (some automakers have not yet released full-year reports for 2025), only BYD, Geely, and Great Wall posted net profits over 10 billion yuan. Even Changan, an old brand, only earned 7.321 billion yuan.

A harsh reality is that profit distribution in the automotive industry has already formed a pattern: profits in the new energy vehicle supply chain are concentrated upstream in batteries, while automakers generally see “higher revenue but not higher profit.” CATL and BYD are beneficiaries of this profit distribution, with net profits of 72.2 billion and 42 billion yuan respectively. CATL’s average daily net profit of 2 billion yuan already surpasses many automakers’ entire annual profits.

Compared to the heavy asset model of automakers, CATL’s light asset + high turnover model carries lower risk. Car manufacturing requires continuous high investment, while CATL’s asset-light approach is more capital-efficient and easier to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Institutions Upgrading Ratings

By 2026, nine institutions have issued ratings for CATL, all recommending “Buy” or “Increase Holdings.” After the financial report, Southwest Securities and Guoxin Securities both upgraded their ratings to “Buy” and “Increase.”

Southwest Securities believes “CATL’s shipment growth is high, evolving from ‘product’ to ‘service’,” noting that “CATL enhances customer experience through car-battery separation and battery swapping modes, collaborating with Sinopec to build charging and swapping networks for passenger and commercial vehicles. By the end of 2025, 1,325 swapping stations will be built, including over 1,000 chocolate swapping stations and over 300 Qiji swapping stations, gradually shifting from product output to integrated product + service models, with strong future growth potential.” The report projects EPS of 19.92 yuan, 24.10 yuan, and 28.98 yuan for 2026-2028, with corresponding P/E ratios of 20x, 16x, and 14x. It expects overseas capacity to be steadily released, new products to be launched continuously, capacity construction to slow, and dividend payout ratios to increase, entering a period of realization. Maintaining a “Buy” rating.

CICC also issued a research report, stating that benefiting from steady global market share growth and continuous profit improvement, CATL’s 2025 performance exceeded expectations. Considering new capacity releases and potential battery price increases in 2026, they raised the profit forecast to 95.98 billion yuan, and further to 120.22 billion yuan for 2027. The target price for A-shares was raised by 10.1% to 490 yuan, and for Hong Kong stocks by 12.1% to 650 HKD, maintaining a “Beat the Industry” rating. Huaxing Securities maintains a valuation of 24x 2026 P/E, with a recent target price of 494 yuan, reaffirming the “Buy” rating.

If CATL achieves a profit of 120.22 billion yuan in 2027 as predicted, only Toyota among global automakers would be comparable, and even Volkswagen’s net profit might be surpassed. At the 2022 World Power Battery Conference, former GAC Chairman Zeng Qinghong said, “Power battery costs account for 40%, 50%, 60% of total costs and keep rising. If this continues, GAC will become a supplier for CATL.” This may become a reality. In 2024, GAC’s net profit was only 823.6 million yuan, just 1/62 of CATL’s 50.74 billion yuan. In the first three quarters of 2025, GAC shifted from profit to loss, with a net loss of 4.312 billion yuan.

CATL’s outstanding performance not only secures Zeng Yuqun’s position on the Hurun Rich List but also sees three other executives on the list. Co-founder Huang Shilin ranks 15th among China’s rich with 175 billion yuan. Others include Li Ping and Zhao Fenggang, with wealth of 70 billion and 28.5 billion yuan respectively. Last year, Xiaomi produced the most billionaires, but this year, CATL has taken that spot.

This article is an original BT Finance article. Unauthorized use, copying, dissemination, or adaptation is prohibited. Legal action will be taken for infringement.

Author | Meng Xiao

Author’s note: Content quoted from external media.