CATL's Melbourne Storage Launch Collides With a Morgan Stanley Downgrade
Published on 10/28/2026 at 13:02 | Editorial boerse-global.de
CATL used the All-Energy Australia 2026 exhibition in Melbourne to roll out TENER+, a battery storage system rated at 9 MWh, and to sign three memoranda of understanding with Hitachi Energy, EPEC Group and UNSW Sydney covering project delivery, grid connection and workforce qualification. The show floor also featured the company's sodium-ion TENER Sodium system, rounding out a display that paired its flagship utility-scale storage unit with a second battery chemistry.
The timing is awkward. Word of the Melbourne launch landed alongside a sharply more cautious view from Morgan Stanley, which cut its rating on the Hong Kong-listed shares from "Buy" to "Equal-weight," according to media reports. The target price was slashed to HK$390 from HK$705. The bank pointed to a weaker-than-expected product mix and disappointing profitability. The stock slipped 2.1% in the previous session.
Revenue and earnings pull apart
Those profitability concerns trace back to the third-quarter 2026 results. Revenue climbed 58.58% year on year to RMB 165.22 billion, yet net profit attributable to shareholders rose just 14.54% to RMB 21.25 billion. Sequentially, that profit figure was down 5.77%. Reuters noted on October 20 that it marked the slowest quarterly earnings growth in nearly two years, citing tougher competition and cooling growth in Chinese car sales.
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Management, speaking to investors the same day, attributed the quarter's performance to shifts in product mix as well as the effects of consumption taxes and export tax rebates. The company also maintained that global demand for traction batteries and energy storage still holds room to grow.
A pipeline stretching beyond storage
CATL's product roadmap extends well past stationary storage. Executives told investors it expects small-series production of solid-state batteries in 2027. On the heavy-truck side, the company unveiled a new generation of battery-swap solutions on October 20 and is targeting 900 swap stations across China by the end of 2026, rising to 2,000 in 2027.
In Europe, the intended markets for the storage cooperation are Germany, Switzerland and Austria, with German firm Intilion as partner. That arrangement remains a letter of intent — a multi-year prospect rather than booked revenue. Turning it into concrete projects and deliveries would be the first step; only if that business supports earnings would it begin to answer the margin critique.
What investors are actually weighing
The central question is whether volume growth can be converted into stronger profit. Additional sales alone are unlikely to justify a re-rating while the product mix stays soft, since higher revenue could again arrive alongside more sluggish earnings. The next real test is progress in converting the Intilion memorandum into actual projects — and, beyond that, operating results that push back against the profitability doubts. For shareholders, the decision hinges less on whether CATL keeps winning business than on how lucrative that business turns out to be.
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