At the 2026 World Power Battery Conference, held under the theme "Electrification Powers All Things, Integration Fosters Symbiosis" in Yibin, Sichuan, on the evening of September 3rd, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (300750.SZ) Chairman Robin Zeng made a virtual appearance to deliver a keynote on product quality, publicly introducing for the first time the "CATL Quality" standard.

Zeng stated frankly: "This year, over 600 new car models have been launched in the domestic market, nearly three per day. Furthermore, some power battery products have experienced large-scale failures, which is alarming. Everyone is competing on speed, specifications, and price, with shortening development cycles, but at the cost of product quality and consumer trust."

He elaborated on the mindset required, saying, "We Chinese have a saying: 'As if standing on the edge of an abyss, as if treading on thin ice.' Making power batteries should feel exactly like that." With over 30 million vehicles worldwide now running on Chinese-made power batteries and billions of cells powering homes globally, Zeng remarked, "The larger these numbers grow, the greater my sense of responsibility. We cannot betray the trust placed in us by every single user."

To illustrate this point, he highlighted concrete examples: a battery pack exhibited at the Beijing Auto Show this year had traveled 840,000 kilometers over six years and still retained 88% of its capacity. Additionally, the Zhangbei energy storage project has run safely for 14 years, with its capacity retention rate exceeding 80% after nine years of operation.

Zeng used these cases to define the core of "CATL Quality": beyond merely meeting high-performance metrics, the central principles are encapsulated in seven words—"safety, reliability, and longevity." He emphasized that this standard remains unwavering regardless of when, where, or which vehicle the battery is installed in.

He explained the concept on three levels. First, "CATL Quality" signifies a reverence for risk, treating every extremely low-probability event as a major concern.

Given the high precision and low fault tolerance of power batteries, any minor issue is exponentially amplified under mass production. Zeng stressed, "When we deliver at massive scales, a small problem can escalate into a major threat to user safety. There is absolutely no room for luck or negligence."

Second, making a single good battery is not difficult; the real challenge lies in producing ten billion cells of equally consistent quality. Zeng pointed out the "barrel effect" in the battery industry.

With a battery pack containing hundreds of cells, the vehicle's range and lifespan are determined not by the best cell, but by the worst one. To address this, CATL maintains a cell failure rate strictly controlled at the PPB level (one in a billion), relentlessly pursuing perfection in consistency to uphold its product baseline.

Third, quality is not merely inspected; it is designed and manufactured into the product. Zeng believes CATL's logic is to "solve risks before they become problems." This involves proactively considering potential risks during the design phase—from material selection and cell structure to system architecture—and strictly controlling each process step and parameter during manufacturing. Furthermore, the company utilizes AI to shift quality management from "detecting problems after they occur" to "identifying anomalies in advance."

Zeng also highlighted that due to this zero-tolerance policy for quality issues, CATL established a unique "Adversarial Team" since its inception. This team brings together researchers from electrochemistry, mechanics, and artificial intelligence, possessing independent R&D capabilities and veto power, thereby fortifying the quality defense line through an organizational mechanism.

"After years of researching batteries, I have become increasingly convinced that at its core, the pursuit of quality ultimately boils down to trust," Zeng stated. He noted that as China's new energy sector now goes global, the world's focus has shifted from 'Can China produce good new energy vehicles?' to 'Can Chinese brands earn long-term trust?'

To further this commitment, CATL will launch its first "CATL Quality" global open month this September, featuring a series of activities at its headquarters in Ningde and across its various production bases.