Exclusive: CATL execs say energy storage industry ‘has to catch up’ – Part 1
Tue, September 8, 2026 at 1:28 PM GMT+3 9 min read
In its early years, Chinese battery leader CATL focused on electric vehicles (EVs), riding the explosive growth of the global e-mobility market. The company has since taken a turn, aggressively expanding its energy storage business with a target for storage to generate 50% of its global sales by 2030.
Today, CATL stands as one of the world's largest grid storage suppliers, powering megaprojects such as Synergy's 2.4GW-hour (GWh) Collie Battery in Australia and the 1.4GWh Gemini Solar-Plus-Storage project in Nevada, US.
In an exclusive interview with Power Technology, CATL's managing director of Western Europe, Hank Zhao, and chief technology officer of AC (alternating current) systems, Bruce Li, share how they translate learnings from the company's automotive history to its stationary storage unit. They also discuss the operational realities of energy storage leadership, executive decision-making in a fast-changing industry, and bridging the gap between Chinese technology and European markets.
Shifting in power: from electric cars to electric grid-scale storage
Jackie Park (JP): Hank, you were one of CATL's earliest employees. Back then, the global discourse around batteries was focused on consumer electronics and early stage EVs. When did you realise that grid-scale storage would become a mainstay of your career?
Hank Zhao (HZ): I joined the company's EV business in 2010 and stayed there for 11 years before moving to the energy storage unit in mid-2021.
When the company was founded, it started with e-mobility and stationary storage as its two main business directions. But I think before 2020, the business scale of storage was much smaller than for EVs, and we didn't see as many opportunities. Then from 2021, there was a rapid boom in demand for energy storage, especially in markets like the US and China.
So, I started to think about a transition seriously: after 11 years in the EV business, why not take on a new challenge for the next stage of my career? That was the point of making the change, and it was a good one.
JP: What were the key differences that you noticed when switching from EVs to grid-scale batteries in terms of how you approach business?
HZ: Actually, they are quite different. I still feel this difference today.
For the EV market, most car manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers have a deep knowledge of the technology and are committed to detailed requirements. They will verify your product and ask for evidence to prove you can deliver every parameter committed in the contract. This is normal in the automotive industry.
But when I switched to storage, I realised that most clients – I cannot say everyone, but plenty – just look at what is written down in the contract and believe you will deliver if you give them a warranty. If you agree on liquidated damages and don't deliver, then fine. CATL is very conservative, so we follow our own quality management process to make sure we can actually deliver. But looking at the whole market, not everyone takes this as seriously, which presents a risk in this industry.
Looking back at the past five years, we have already seen a lot of safety and quality issues in storage projects. As more volume is delivered to different markets by various companies, we will likely see more fires, poor performance across different sites, and players start to go bankrupt and disappear in a short period.
I believe this will happen if this [lack of cross-border standards] goes unaddressed. In automotive, there is a comprehensive global standard and process to ensure every player does the right thing and does it right. Storage is a new industry, and it has to catch up.
JP: You have been an advocate for bringing automotive product development procedures into the storage space. Have there been any challenges in applying this automotive-grade precision to the rapidly changing storage landscape?
HZ: Some clients don't understand why we apply automotive standards and processes to energy storage, thinking it is too complex and adds cost. But for us, it is the only way – or the best practice we know – to ensure long-term reliability, safety and performance for our clients.
The automotive industry has more than 100 years of history, so it has accumulated mature practices like the V-Model, TS 16949 and quality management tools. That represents best practice. CATL has supplied major global players in the EV market, like BMW, GM, Hyundai, Mercedes, Tesla and Toyota, who placed standards and requirements which we learned from. They helped us improve our own quality management and product development processes. This ultimately helped us get ahead on the storage side.
Realising the energy storage market lacked these standards and tools, we decided to create our own based on the best practices we learned on the automotive side. We break down requirements for design from the system to the subsystem, down to single components, and then validate all the way back up to ensure we deliver the same level of quality, validation and performance as in automotive.
I believe this will help CATL survive longer in the market – we want to exist for the next 100 years.
Navigating leadership in energy storage
JP: There is likely a degree of pressure that comes with the scale and importance of critical infrastructure projects you oversee as managing director of CATL's storage business across Western Europe. How do you manage this in your position?
HZ: I break down what I may need to worry about into actions that eliminate risk, whether that be fire risk or malfunctions. The validation process I outlined earlier plays a key part. During validation, we define the protocols for critical situations that could occur during real operation. For example, if I worry about an external short circuit or a site flashover, worrying alone does not help; but if I know our teams have tested those conditions, validated whether the product design is resilient enough to survive and have prepared responses to remove impact under harsh conditions, my worries diminish.
Only by conducting the most rigorous validation processes can I be confident that problems won't arise, and that our products can be deployed in cold regions, hot regions, high-corrosion coastal areas or locations with strong windstorms and heavy snow. Reducing mental pressure – this is another reason I am keen to apply automotive precision to the high-stakes storage industry.
Bruce Li (BL): I will add that as an early member of the company, Hank has experienced every tough stage of CATL's growth, which has built strong self-confidence. He can handle and execute risk management under immense pressure, having seen and managed all kinds of scenarios over the years.
JP: Bruce, in your decision-making process as CTO, how do you evaluate when a breakthrough is mature enough to move from a controlled environment into a high-stakes commercial grid environment?
BL: CATL expects leadership to have both a technical and commercial mindset. From a technical view, we focus on product maturity and readiness. It is not up to me to judge whether a technology is mature enough; our process judges that.
In every stage, from concept to mass production, we perform different validations and rate them on what we call 'technology readiness levels' (TRL), only moving to the next stage when the proper level is reached. TRL 1–3 happens in the laboratory, taking it from concept to initial demonstration. From TRL 3–5, we produce engineering samples that can be manufactured using our current supply chain. After TRL 6 or 7, we prepare manufacturing, the supply chain and quality controls before entering the market, signalling readiness for mass production.
The other side of the coin is evaluating commercial readiness. CATL always aims to be a pioneer. So, we prepare research on new features and technologies in advance, before other companies are fully committed to these new advancements. When we identify a clear market trend, we develop and promote the product, even if it [the business strategy] carries higher risk, even if it is not 100% certain [the future demand for the technology].
As a pioneer, we must take on that risk. If we wait until the market, product and customer requirements are fully mature, we may lose our pioneer position. There is a Chinese idiom: "Eating in the bowl, looking in the pot, expecting in the field" [meaning, enjoying what is there, while eyeballing what is to come next and planning future harvest before even finishing the current meal]. We apply this to our commercialisation approach: we turn to products with the highest maturity for steady cash flow; we begin to promote those reaching technological readiness to prepare for the future market; and for developing technologies, we conduct confidential internal research and development, waiting for the proper time to convert it into a creative product to maintain our market pioneership.
JP: As an executive overseeing European operations, your mandate involves translating Chinese engineering across European markets with varying cultures, modi operandi (ways of operating) and regulations. How have you approached bridging the cultural and operational gap with European partners?
BL: Two keywords apply here: reliability and respect. As leaders, we must ensure reliability in our products and prove to customers in any market the advantages we can bring as a Chinese company – our technologies' maturity, our competitive costs and our learned best practices.
Secondly, while product reliability often relies on technological expertise, entering the European market depends on people. We respect local culture, working habits and schedules to build close customer relationships and communicate on the same wavelength.
From a leadership standpoint, we build localised sales, product management and product development (SPP) teams that focus on strengthening customer understanding and communication on the ground. The SPP team coordinates between our Chinese headquarters and our local European operations, making sure nothing gets lost in translation. Through this pipeline, we can provide comprehensive support and solutions that match each customer's needs.
In Part 2, Zhao and Li expand on their experience navigating European operations as the region seeks more grid-forming energy storage capabilities and strengthens battery regulations. They also explore the potential of alternative battery chemistries such as sodium-ion.
"Exclusive: CATL execs say energy storage industry 'has to catch up' – Part 1" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.
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