# China's 15th Five-Year Plan for New Battery Industry Sets Capacity Expansion Guardrails

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and six other departments issued the New Battery Industry Development 15th Five-Year Plan on September 28, 2026, setting directions for capacity expansion, pricing competition and technology standards through 2030\.

By China EV Signal
Published: 2026-10-08T14:07:22.999Z
Updated: 2026-10-08T14:07:23.001Z
Canonical article: https://chinaevsignal.com/news/china-15th-five-year-plan-new-battery-industry-capacity-expansion

## Key takeaways

- The 15th Five-Year Plan for the new battery industry, issued on September 28, 2026 by MIIT and six other departments, calls for optimizing lithium battery industrial layout based on regional clustering and concentration of leading players, and supporting mergers and acquisitions\.
- China's lithium battery output exceeded 1240GWh in the first half of 2026, up 44% year on year, while signed domestic expansion projects reached 100 in the first seven months of 2026 with about 2608GWh of planned annual capacity\.
- According to Caixin, relevant authorities began assessing power and energy storage battery capacity and utilization at the end of 2025 and suspended related new domestic projects from mid-May 2026, with construction qualifications for the next stage to be decided at the end of 2026 based on assessment results\.

## Plan targets 2030 battery industry scale and standards

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and six other departments issued the New Battery Industry Development 15th Five-Year Plan on September 28, 2026, setting out the direction for the next five years of the sector\.

The plan states that by 2030, China's new battery industry scale should continue to grow steadily, all-solid-state batteries should achieve initial large-scale application, and long-life lithium batteries should reach a cycle life of 15,000 times\.

The plan calls for optimizing lithium battery industrial layout based on regional clustering and concentration of leading players, supporting corporate mergers and acquisitions, and continuing to implement capacity warning and control measures and regulate price competition\.

It also calls for advancing standard development in key areas including all-solid-state batteries and sodium batteries, and filling gaps in product safety grades, performance grading and rapid testing standards\. By 2030, leading companies should reach a product defect rate at the PPB level\.

## Capacity utilization thresholds already revised in 2024

In June 2024, MIIT revised the Lithium-ion Battery Industry Standard Conditions, which explicitly requires reducing manufacturing projects that simply expand capacity and requires companies applying for standard announcement to have actual output in the previous year no lower than 50% of actual capacity\.

## Output and expansion continue at high levels

China's lithium battery output exceeded 1240GWh in the first half of 2026, up 44% year on year\. In the first seven months of 2026, 100 domestic lithium battery expansion projects were signed, with total planned annual capacity of about 2608GWh\.

## Approvals tighten for new projects

In September 2026, multiple media outlets learned from battery companies and industry chain personnel that approval management for new domestic power and energy storage battery projects had tightened, and some projects that had not yet formally started construction were put on hold\.

Citing a Caixin report dated September 10, 2026, relevant authorities started assessing power and energy storage battery capacity and utilization at the end of 2025, suspended related new domestic projects from mid-May 2026, and will decide construction qualifications for the next stage at the end of 2026 based on assessment results\.

Projects that had already obtained environmental impact, energy efficiency and other construction procedures before May are not affected\. Companies with higher capacity utilization are expected to obtain construction qualifications for the next stage\.

## Leading battery makers report high utilization

CATL's 2026 semi-annual report disclosed battery system capacity of 525GWh, first-half output of 498GWh, a capacity utilization rate of 94\.86%, and 764GWh of capacity under construction\.

Penghui Energy's 2026 semi-annual report showed annualized lithium-ion battery capacity of 10\.121 billion Ah, first-half output of 8\.386 billion Ah, a capacity utilization rate of 165\.72% based on the company's disclosed calculation method, and 39\.69 billion Ah of capacity under construction\.

## Some material and battery projects halted

Ruitai New Material previously terminated the Ningde Huarong project with an annual capacity of 400,000 tons of lithium-ion battery electrolyte\. In 2026 the company also decided to terminate construction of some remaining production lines at Zhangjiagang Chaowei New Energy, where the original plan was for 4,000 tons of new electrolyte material capacity and 2,800 tons was actually built\.

## Larger storage cells enter procurement

In 2025, 314Ah remained the mainstream specification for large-scale storage cells\. Entering 2026, 500Ah\+ large-capacity cells began entering the procurement market in volume\.

In the energy storage cell framework procurement launched by NARI in June 2026, 314Ah and 587Ah cells each corresponded to about 2GWh of demand\. GGII expects the penetration rate of 500Ah\+ storage cells to approach 20% in 2026\.

## Changhong Sanjie plans 21700 cell line in Jiangsu

On September 9, 2026, Changhong Energy announced that its subsidiary Changhong Sanjie plans to invest 287 million yuan to build a 21700 full-tab battery production line in Taixing, Jiangsu\. The project adds annual capacity of about 57 million cells and will be implemented entirely in existing factory buildings, requiring only new production equipment and no plant construction\.

Under the plan, equipment will arrive by the end of 2026, and installation and commissioning will be completed by the end of March 2027\.

## Trina Storage project needs new environmental approval

On September 7, 2026, a local government notice stated that the plant and main production equipment for Trina Storage's 12GWh energy storage battery project in Dafeng, Yancheng, had been built and installed, but the project needed to reapply for environmental approval due to improved cathode material performance and changes in raw and auxiliary materials\.

## CATL acquires Chongqing Yaoning project stake

In September 2026, CATL acquired a stake in the Chongqing Yaoning power battery project under the Geely group, obtaining merger control approval\. The plant, planned for 18GWh, has undergone multiple adjustments to its construction plan since construction began in 2021\.

## Consumption tax and export rebate changes take effect

From September 1, 2026, lithium-ion batteries resumed being subject to a 2% consumption tax, which will rise to 4% in September 2027\. Eligible solid-state and sodium-ion batteries received a phased consumption tax exemption through the end of 2028\.

On the export side, the value-added tax export rebate rate for relevant battery products has been reduced from 9% to 6% and will be cancelled from January 1, 2027\.

## Company coverage

- [CATL news](https://chinaevsignal.com/manufacturers/catl)

## Original publisher

高工锂电. Published: 2026-10-08T10:47:01.000Z