Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited Chairman Robin Zeng said on September 3, 2026, that China’s rapid electric vehicle launch pace and intense price competition are contributing to battery quality concerns in the domestic market. Speaking at the 2026 World Power Battery Conference in Yibin, Sichuan Province, Zeng said more than 600 new vehicle models had been launched in China during 2026, a rate he described as roughly three launches per day. He added that shortened validation cycles used to keep up with this pace had contributed to several power battery products experiencing batch-level failures. Zeng did not name any affected automakers or battery suppliers.
His remarks come as China’s EV market continues to face pricing pressure. Recent industry data showed lower transaction prices for some mass-market Chinese electric vehicles in the first half of 2026, while lithium iron phosphate cell prices were reported below 0.35 yuan per watt-hour. Those figures reflect the cost pressure facing automakers and suppliers, but they do not by themselves prove a direct link to battery failures.
Zeng also pointed to earlier battery quality cases in China’s EV sector. In one dispute, Geely subsidiary Viridi E-Mobility Technology sued battery maker Sunwoda in December 2025, alleging defects in cells supplied from June 2021 through December 2023 and seeking 2.31 billion yuan in damages. The matter was later settled, with Sunwoda agreeing to pay 608 million yuan after accounting for amounts already covered. In another case, issues involving CALB cells affected about 213,000 GAC Aion vehicles and led to complaints including battery swelling and power loss.
During his keynote, Zeng argued that conventional parts-per-million defect tolerances are not sufficient for high-volume EV battery production. He said CATL sets an internal target of no more than one defect per billion cells, a level far stricter than 1 PPM. He also described the company’s internal Opponent Group, which he said reviews battery projects for latent failure modes and has veto authority over related milestones and shipments.
Zeng’s comments highlight the challenge of balancing speed, cost, and quality as China’s battery and EV industries continue to scale.
Source: CarNewsChina
