To The Moon

CATL (03750) rose more than 4% before noon, with the stock up 4.04% to HK$527.5 at the time of writing, recording a turnover of HK$882 million. Market reports indicate that Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited and CATL recently introduced sodium-ion batteries and will launch sodium battery passenger vehicles across multiple brands. CATL's Chief Technology Officer Gao Huan revealed that the company's sodium battery cells can achieve a maximum energy density of 175 Wh/kg, enabling pure electric vehicles to exceed a range of 400 kilometers, with potential future upgrades to 500 or even 600 kilometers. Hybrid models could also achieve ranges of 300–400 kilometers. According to the plan, CATL will establish 3,000 battery swap stations in over 140 cities this year and aims to rapidly launch multiple sodium battery vehicle models with Chongqing Changan Automobile Company Limited by 2026. Notably, during trading on February 12, lithium carbonate futures briefly surged above 150,000 yuan per ton. Analysts point out that as energy storage replaces new energy vehicles as the core growth driver for lithium battery demand, solid-state batteries, with advantages in energy density and safety, are expected to significantly increase lithium consumption per battery, opening new growth avenues for lithium resource demand. UBS believes the industry is rapidly approaching a critical point of "triple parity" in cost, range, and charging time. Declining costs are set to effectively stimulate end-consumer demand, creating a virtuous cycle of "technological cost reduction—demand expansion—resource value revaluation."