CATL, the world's largest manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries, announced that all 20 of its operating plants have obtained ISO 14068-1 carbon neutrality certification after achieving the target the company set for its core operations in 2025. However, the announcement does not mean that the plants produce no emissions; rather, it indicates that the company measured and reduced emissions, then balanced the remainder in accordance with the standard's requirements.
The step comes from a company that held a 39.2% share of the global electric vehicle battery market in 2025, according to SNE Research data cited by CATL, placing it in first position for the ninth consecutive year. Accordingly, any change in the carbon footprint of its operations could affect a broad segment of electric vehicles around the world.
Significant improvement inside the plants
CATL said carbon-free electricity supplied 100% of the energy used in its core operations during 2025, after its plants consumed more than 18 billion kilowatt-hours of this electricity since 2023. Compared with 2022, energy consumption per unit of production fell by 28%, while emissions per unit declined by approximately 77%. The company estimates that its measures reduced more than 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent between 2023 and 2025.
The company uses its internal carbon chain management system, known as the CATL Carbon Chain Management System or CCMS, to collect emissions data from plants, production lines, products, raw materials, and primary suppliers. Since the system was launched in 2022, CATL has created more than 1,000 emissions models for products and materials.
Why does plant certification not end the emissions problem?
The ISO 14068-1 standard requires emissions to be identified and reduced, with direct reductions given priority before carbon credits are used to balance the remaining amount. However, CATL has not disclosed its total remaining operational emissions or the number of carbon credits used, nor has it clarified the proportion of carbon-free electricity that came directly from renewable generation compared with what was accounted for through green electricity certificates or other procurement arrangements.
The company says that more than 80% of a battery's life-cycle emissions come from the supply chain, and that total value-chain emissions are more than five times the emissions from its core operations. These emissions include mining, refining, chemical processing, materials manufacturing, and transportation, activities that are partly outside the company's direct control.
What is changing in practice among suppliers?
CATL has established baseline emissions data for more than 100 key tier-one suppliers and intends to expand coverage to include all major upstream links. Beginning in 2027, new suppliers will be required to provide data on their products' carbon footprints, while the use of renewable electricity and energy efficiency will become part of annual supplier reviews.
Suppliers with better emissions-reduction performance may receive priority in the allocation of CATL orders and longer-term contracts. The company will launch a supply-chain decarbonization program in close cooperation with 30 core suppliers, focusing through 2035 on lower-emission materials and production processes, renewable electricity for suppliers, carbon-free transportation, and battery recycling through its subsidiary Brunp Recycling.
CATL says it has already helped its suppliers install more than 60 distributed solar energy projects, with annual generation exceeding 450 million kilowatt-hours, and also plans to expand joint procurement of renewable electricity and green certificates. In this way, the next step moves from cleaning up the manufacturing operations themselves to influencing the mining, materials, logistics, and recycling activities that determine most of a battery's environmental impact.