The world’s biggest EV battery supplier China-based Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) is defending itself agains allegations in the US that it poses a security risk
Chinese battery giant CATL has hit back at US utility firm Duke Energy’s move to disconnect its batteries, saying that accusations about CATL batteries posing a potential security threat are false and misleading.
Business and products in the United States do not collect, sell, or share data in any way, the company says according to a report by Reuters.
Products have passed rigorous safety and security reviews including those by US authorities and businesses, it added.
Duke Energy has severed the connection with industrial-scale battery systems produced by CATL at the North Carolina Marine Corps base Camp Lejeune as some US lawmakers raised concerns about potential security threats, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company said this week, without mentioning how long the batteries will remain offline.
Demand for CATL’s batteries in the US has been growing in recent years. The firm has supplied 2.1 gigawatt-hours of batteries to three energy storage projects run by utility firm Southern California Edison and it has more than 500 megawatt hours of projects in operation or under construction in Texas.
CATL is also linking arms with US energy management platforms Primergy Solar and FlexGen to provide them with batteries and energy storage systems.
Last year, CATL produced 37% of the world’s EV batteries and 43.4% of energy storage batteries for a grand total of 289 GWh and 2023 is shaping to be another landmark year.
According to South Korean research firm SNE Research, CATL cemented its domination of the global EV industry in the January-August period this year with 37% market share, followed by second-ranked BYD with 16%. Its sales outside of China reached 27.7%, up by 6.9% year-on-year.
