How China Left the World Far Behind in the Battery Race
In an exclusive excerpt from his new book Climate Capitalism, Akshat Rathi explains the origin of China’s dominance in the battery market through the lens of CATL, now the world’s largest battery company.
A model of a battery powered motor at the CATL booth on the opening day of the Munich Motor Show in Munich on Sept. 5, 2023.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergThis is one of the stories in Akshat Rathi’s new book Climate Capitalism, which is out today. Akshat explains the origin of China’s dominance in the battery market through the lens of CATL, now the world’s largest battery company. This is an adapted excerpt from the book.
It was an admission of defeat. But you would never know it looking at the mild-mannered smiles that morning. Angela Merkel, then German chancellor, was standing next to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. On a partially cloudy summer morning in Berlin in July 2018, both leaders made small talk in between posing for the cameras.