CATL, the largest EV battery maker in the world, says all 20 of its operating battery plants have reached carbon-neutral status. Electrek noted that while it is a notable milestone, it also highlights that most of the pollution tied to batteries still happens outside those facilities.
Here's what to know
CATL announced that ISO 14068-1 certification now covers all its battery plants, which the company said means it fulfilled its 2025 carbon-neutrality goal for core operations. CATL's next objective is decarbonizing its full value chain by 2035.
Nearly 4 in 10 EV batteries worldwide came from the Chinese brand in 2025, per SNE Research data from the company. That works out to a 39.2% share of the global EV battery market.
Since 2023, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. plants have used over 18 billion kilowatt-hours of zero-carbon electricity. The company noted that power supplied all electricity used by its core operations in 2025. It also said that, relative to a 2022 baseline, energy use per unit of production fell 28% and pollution per unit dropped by about 77%.
The label "carbon-neutral" does not mean a company has eliminated pollution, as Electrek clarified. Under the certification standard, businesses must first measure and reduce their pollution, then offset what remains. CATL did not disclose how much pollution its operations generate before offsets or how many carbon credits it used.
More background
Most of a battery's climate impact comes from the supply chain rather than the factory itself.
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CATL said that over four-fifths of battery lifecycle pollution stems from extraction, refining, chemical processing, materials manufacturing, and transportation. It added that pollution across the company's value chain is more than five times greater than that of its core operations.
A battery assembled in a low-pollution plant can still carry a sizable carbon footprint if its ingredients come from dirtier sources.
"CATL will advance value-chain decarbonization across key areas including material innovation, material manufacturing, green logistics, and battery recycling," Bryan Huang, head of the CATL Procurement Center, stated. "This requires collaboration across the entire battery value chain."
EVs are central to reducing transportation pollution, and companies are under pressure to back cleaner-product claims with transparent accounting and supply-chain changes.
CATL's announcement comes amid a broader debate over whether carbon-neutral labels reflect substantial pollution cuts, heavy offset use, or some combination of both.
What's being done?
CATL said it uses an internal Carbon Chain Management System introduced in 2022 to gather pollution data across facilities, manufacturing lines, finished products, inputs, and key suppliers.
The system has created over 1,000 modeled pollution profiles for materials and products, per the release.
CATL has compiled baseline carbon information for more than 100 core Tier 1 suppliers and plans to expand that work across key upstream links. Starting in 2027, new suppliers will need to provide product carbon-footprint data, and CATL said renewable electricity use and energy efficiency will become part of its annual supplier reviews.
Efforts such as this could make future EVs cleaner without changing how people drive or charge them. Stronger supplier standards can also put pressure on brands to verify environmental claims more carefully.
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