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Valued at 9 billion: CATL Chassis Company Launches First Round of Financing

EqualOcean Auto 2025-07-28 13:47:32

Yio Auto exclusively learned that Times Intelligence has recently launched its first round of external financing, with a financing scale of 2 billion yuan and a pre-investment valuation of approximately 9 billion yuan.

 

This move means that CATL is accelerating the advancement of its chassis business.

 

Times Intelligent, officially known as "Contemporary Amperex Technology (Shanghai) Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.," was established in 2021 and provides battery-centered skateboard chassis-related products and technical services.

 

For a long time, Times Intelligence has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of CATL. Although new investors were introduced in November 2023, they were all related companies of CATL.

 

Until recently, Times Intelligence only opened the window to external investors.

 

As a star company in the intelligent chassis field and backed by CATL, Times Intelligence has received enthusiastic pursuit from external investors.

 

According to information obtained by Yiou Auto, this round of financing was not fully disclosed and was conducted in the form of targeted invitations.

 

"A minimum investment of 100 million is required, and now only major state-owned capital is entering," an insider told Yiou Auto. A valuation of 9 billion yuan is not particularly high, as it is not much different from the net assets, and the first round of investment "is definitely the most cost-effective."

 

External funding has been completed for the investment in Times Intelligence.

 

Business information shows that on July 14 of this year, "Ningbo Meishan Bonded Port Area Ningchuang Zhiyuan Venture Capital Partnership (Limited Partnership)" acquired a 9.99% stake in Times Intelligent from CATL.

 

The investor has a financial institution background, with Industrial Trust holding 99.9960% of the shares.

 

Yiou Auto also learned that another large financial institution has confirmed its investment, amounting to 200 million, and it has already been approved.

 

Times Intelligent's opening to external financing is a sign of accelerating its business implementation.

 

An insider from the primary market indicated that CATL is "truly anxious"—this money is not easy to obtain, and since they have obtained it, they are genuinely serious about getting things done.

From "Setting the Benchmark" to "Achieving Scale"

 

 

The skateboard chassis is not a new concept; General Motors proposed this idea as early as 2002.

 

Compared to traditional chassis, the biggest feature of the skateboard chassis is its high integration—it integrates key components such as driving, braking, and steering onto the chassis, making the chassis a standardized component. This allows for independent development of the upper and lower body.

 

However, the skateboard chassis did not transition from concept to reality. It wasn't until the era of smart electric vehicles arrived, with the three-electric system becoming the core of automobiles and the demand for intelligence becoming increasingly clear, that the skateboard chassis encountered the opportunity for commercial implementation.

 

Public information shows that since 2018, CATL has started basic research on skateboard chassis. In internal management discussions, the skateboard chassis is considered one of the important directions for the evolution of battery technology and the improvement of module efficiency.

 

In 2021, they studied how to implement this technology and established a subsidiary named Times Intelligent, which serves as the operational entity for CATL's expansion from power batteries to the skateboard chassis business.

 

It's not difficult to understand that CATL's skateboard chassis, based on the traditional skateboard chassis, integrates CATL's power battery. In addition to the advantages of the skateboard chassis, CATL's skateboard chassis is also expected to significantly save interior space, reduce energy consumption, and enhance driving range.

 

Certainly, from the perspective of cooperative clients, the more practical functional value is to reduce the cost of vehicle development and improve development efficiency.

 

If an automotive company adopts CATL's skateboard chassis, a brand-new model can be developed within 12-18 months. Currently, even for smart electric vehicle products that have an extremely compressed development cycle, it takes about 2 years from project initiation to mass production.

In the early stages, CATL's market development focus for skateboard chassis was on passenger car companies. The core idea at the time was to create some benchmark cases to stimulate broader market demand.

 

In January 2023, Times Intelligence successfully secured a client, Nezha Automobile, and simultaneously initiated the construction of a factory in Yichun, Jiangxi.

 

In August 2024, the Nezha S Shooting Brake was launched, and at that time, a model featuring the Era Intelligent CIIC Intelligent Chassis was announced, with initial plans for mass production in November of that year.

 

However, Neta Auto subsequently experienced an operational crisis, and Times Intelligent did not initiate the first shot of mass production.

 

Last year, Times Intelligent also secured its second important client—Avita.

 

In December 2024, the skateboard chassis product "Rock Chassis," which focuses on high safety, was released. Avatr is the first new energy brand to be equipped with the Rock Chassis.

 

However, the related models have not been launched yet.

 

The pace of commercialization for Times Intelligence is obviously not fast enough.

 

According to Jiemian News, Times Intelligence formulated the "531" plan at its inception, which involves forming a team and setting an overall plan in the first year, launching products in the third year, and from the fifth year onwards, providing skateboard chassis for 2-3 OEMs annually. Currently, the team at Times Intelligence has approximately 600 members.

 

According to sources familiar with the matter, Zeng Yuqun has explicitly stated the desire to "achieve scale as soon as possible."

 

Since the end of last year, Time Intelligence has significantly accelerated its pace of external cooperation, signing cooperation agreements with BAIC New Energy, JAC Yiwei, T3 Mobility, and others. CATL, as the parent company, has also actively entered into strategic partnerships with Baidu, Ant & Hello, Changan Mazda, Dongfeng Nissan, and others.

 

Among them, there are both passenger car companies and travel companies.

 

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The chassis integrates core functions such as braking and steering, which can directly affect the vehicle's handling, comfort, and stability. If intelligent configurations are considered the soul of a car company, then the chassis can be regarded as the body. Most automotive companies are unwilling to relinquish this part.

 

Therefore, mobility companies and robotaxis are a feasible path to achieve large-scale application of skateboard chassis.

 

Yiou Auto has learned that the project that Times Intelligence can deliver relatively quickly is the robotaxi project.

The Nth Growth Curve

CATL’s development of skateboard chassis is still based on expanding new growth curves from its battery business.

 

Although it has been the global leader in shipments for eight consecutive years, after several years of rapid growth, CATL also has to admit that the growth potential will not expand indefinitely.

 

On the one hand, after years of development and refinement in the power battery industry, the technological gap between various battery manufacturers has been continuously narrowing.

 

On the other hand, in the context of intense competition in the smart electric vehicle industry, cost has become the core demand for car companies when procuring batteries. However, CATL, which has always won by quality, does not have an advantage in terms of price.

 

In order to seek lower-cost power batteries and maintain the safety of their supply chains, many automakers that previously focused heavily on CATL have shifted the responsibility of battery supply to other manufacturers to varying degrees.

 

For example, NIO, which has been deeply tied to CATL for a long time, has successively introduced battery manufacturers such as CALB and Sunwoda. Not only does the main NIO brand have battery pack supplies from CALB, but the highly anticipated, soon-to-be-launched LeDao L90 also features an ultra-thin battery pack with a thickness of just 116mm, which was jointly developed with CALB.

 

In terms of data, CATL's installed capacity is still expanding, but the growth rate has slowed down. Over the past year, CATL's market share in China increased by only 2 percentage points, and in the first half of this year, it "fell" to 43%.

 

图片

 

Therefore, even though CATL remains a stable industry leader, establishing new growth avenues is an urgent priority.

 

In terms of market expansion, CATL is accelerating its steps to go abroad.

 

Currently, the overseas revenue of CATL accounts for about 30%, but CATL has planned a production capacity of around 200GWh in Germany, Hungary, Spain, and other locations. By the middle of last year, the factories in Germany and Hungary had already begun operations.

 

In May this year, CATL was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the second time, raising $4.6 billion to provide ample "ammunition" for overseas capacity expansion, international business development, and long-term internationalization strategy.

 

An insider close to CATL told Yiou Auto that in the overseas market, CATL is catching up with LG Energy Solution.

 

Although CATL is already number one in total volume and has just taken the lead in the European market, Chinese companies still have a different approach in the US and other markets, lacking the global market experience of Korean companies.

 

In terms of business innovation, delving into the chassis from the battery is also a natural evolution of a differentiated path.

 

From a technical perspective, the skateboard chassis represents the ultimate form of increased battery integration.

 

A few years ago, CATL introduced the module-free battery pack (CTP: Cell to Pack), a technology that bypasses the module by directly integrating cells into the battery pack. The skateboard chassis takes it a step further by integrating the battery pack directly into the chassis (CTC: Cell To Chassis).

 

To some extent, CATL has brought the value of the skateboard chassis back to the battery itself. When the Panshi chassis was released, the selling point was not the performance of the chassis, but the ultimate safety that the veteran battery "Stacked Armor" could achieve.

In terms of product form and business model innovation, in addition to skateboard chassis, CATL is also exploring other growth directions, such as battery swapping.

 

Similar to the skateboard chassis, the battery swapping business can also be understood as a standardized product like the power battery being "packaged" into a new system, becoming a new business venture.

 

At the end of last year, CATL held a battery swap ecosystem conference. After two years of trial operation, CATL announced plans to build 1,000 battery swap stations by 2025 and aims to leverage the strength of its partners to construct 30,000 battery swap stations in the future.

 

A battery swapping station can be equipped with several or more than a dozen battery packs. Once the battery swapping system is rolled out, CATL's battery shipments will see considerable growth.

 

However, whether it is the skateboard chassis or battery swapping, both are unproven business models. Even with its strong technical capabilities and abundant ecological resources, CATL will find it challenging to successfully implement these businesses.

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