If we were to describe CATL’s development over the past decade as a dance, it would undoubtedly be the “Battery Dance”—achieving the pinnacle of scale, cost, and safety around power batteries, energy storage, and electrochemical systems.
However, with the accelerated competition in AI in China and globally by the end of 2024, CATL has also begun its own AI dance, joining the faster-paced and more variable “AI Dance” that the global industry must participate in.
Humanoid robots are the most tangible and easily perceived aspect of this shift.
● Why is CATL moving from batteries to humanoid robots? Is this simply chasing a trend, or is there a deeper industrial logic?
From our perspective, the answer is actually quite simple: humanoid robots represent an application scenario that perfectly aligns with CATL’s existing capabilities.
Batteries are the core power source for robots, and robots naturally embody the three directions CATL is pursuing: high energy density, high safety, and system capabilities deeply integrated with AI
Compared to the new energy vehicle industry, which has entered a new stage of scale competition and price wars, humanoid robots offer a new space that is “not yet finalized, but where standards can be jointly defined.”
This is why, at present, robot manufacturers’ focus on batteries remains limited, while battery companies appear unusually proactive.
For robot manufacturers, the core challenge lies in whether the application scenarios and capabilities are feasible;
For CATL, robots represent a potential growth area that can be invested in early and cultivated over the long term, while also driving the evolution of AI battery technology, especially in areas such as solid-state batteries, high-rate discharge, and battery system-level safety.
The humanoid robot “Xiao Mo” What truly made the outside world realize that CATL was not just “telling a story,” but was seriously performing this AI dance, was the deployment of the humanoid robot “Xiao Mo” at its Zhongzhou base.
Unlike many robot applications that remain at the demonstration or conceptual stage, “Xiao Mo” has directly entered CATL’s production scenarios, specifically the EOL and DCR processes of its power battery PACK production line.
This is a process that has long relied on manual labor, requiring operation under conditions of multiple models, small batches, and high flexibility, and also involves high-voltage connection of hundreds of volts, inherently posing safety risks and consistency issues.
“Xiao Mo” began experimenting in this stage. Through an end-to-end vision-language-motion model, “Xiao Mo” can adapt to incoming material deviations and position changes, autonomously adjusting its posture;
It dynamically controls the force when inserting and removing flexible wiring harnesses to avoid damage;
In terms of cycle time and success rate, it has achieved close to or even surpassed that of skilled workers, with a stable connection success rate of over 99%.
With CATL’s numerous subsequent PACK production lines, in scenarios where humanoid robots replace workers, CATL’s application of these robots has proven its value in real, high-risk, and high-consistency industrial scenarios.
This step is crucial; CATL is first integrating it into its own manufacturing system. Refining the robot’s capabilities, AI models, and battery systems internally to form a closed loop is far more valuable in the long run than simply investing externally or releasing concepts.
Since 2024, CATL has been continuously increasing its investment in embodied intelligence through its capital platform: investing in Qianxun Intelligent and VitaPower, participating in Galaxy General’s major financing round, and exploring cooperation opportunities for key robot components and joints with companies like Fulim Precision at the industry chain level.
These actions are not aimed at short-term returns, but rather revolve around a core objective: to enter the “engineering field” of the humanoid robot industry as early as possible, rather than remaining on the periphery of technology.
CATL has always maintained its “main line advantage” in its robot strategy. Whether it’s the self-developed battery used in “Xiao Mo” or the pioneering application of solid-state batteries in humanoid robots, the essence is to use the high-demand scenario of robots to verify and amplify the differentiated value of battery technology. The robot sector serves as a “testing ground” and “amplifier” for next-generation battery technology.
This path may not be fast, but it is certainly stable. Humanoid robots have already had an impact on three levels:
First, they are driving the evolution of intelligent manufacturing towards greater flexibility and intelligence;
Second, they are providing real-world application scenarios for cutting-edge technologies such as solid-state batteries;
Third, they are enabling CATL to occupy a more proactive position in the long-term narrative of AI and energy integration.
In summary, if the “Battery Dance” emphasized scale, efficiency, and cost, then this “AI Dance,” with humanoid robots, still has a long way to go before true large-scale deployment. They need to first enter the back-end, the production line, and the engineering details, and then proceed gradually.
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