Podcast: Who’s really profiting from the electric car boom?

When we talk about electric cars, the conversation usually centers on Tesla, BMW, or the new Chinese brands. Yet, surprisingly often, the battery cells under the hood come from the same handful of suppliers.
Merlin Frank from PEM at RWTH Aachen University and his team have linked new registration data for European electric cars with the battery systems and cells installed in each vehicle. The result: At least half of all newly registered electric cars in Europe use cells from CATL.
In this episode, we discuss why CATL was able to become so dominant in just a few years, just how dependent Europe’s auto industry actually is on Chinese battery supply chains, and why a cell manufacturer may be structurally able to benefit from the success of many competing car brands at the same time.

Find the episode here: https://youtu.be/-i1aqhWM014?si=lxy1tsvgmbTjAFAZ