CATL is increasing investment in battery swap and energy storage businesses to find new growth drivers and combat price wars and profit pressures. The company recently established a wholly-owned energy storage technology subsidiary with a registered capital of RMB 5 billion (approximately USD 750 million) and announced a 3GWh sodium-ion battery project with German energy storage solution provider Intilion. This month, it also announced four battery swap collaborations with automakers. Nomura analyst Ethan Zhang believes that China's resumption of battery consumption tax collection may impact CATL's unit profitability in the short term, thus lowering his earnings forecasts for 2026-2028 by up to 10.2%. Morgan Stanley also warned that if battery exports and the higher-margin energy storage business do not contribute more significantly to Q4 results, ongoing price wars could weaken the company's fundamentals.