The partnership pairs CarbonScape’s forestry-residue biographite with CATL’s industrial scale-up muscle, targeting commercial production by the end of the decade.
Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL), the world’s largest battery manufacturer, has entered into a strategic investment and partnership with CarbonScape Ltd., a New Zealand-founded developer of sustainable bio-based graphite materials for battery applications. The deal is structured to advance the commercial scale-up and deployment of CarbonScape’s biographite for next-generation battery supply chains.
The transaction gives CATL board representation and positions it as a lead industrialisation partner in the further development and scaling of CarbonScape’s technology. The CATL group is set to own 20% of CarbonScape, making the battery maker a substantial minority shareholder alongside existing backers.
The investment lands as automakers and policymakers increasingly seek low-carbon, locally sourced and cost-competitive anode materials for the US and European graphite supply chains, where reliance on Chinese processing and petroleum-based synthetic feedstock remains a strategic concern.
GraphiteHub toured CarbonScape’s biographite facility in Blenheim, New Zealand, in November 2025. Click to watch on YouTube.
Plenty of companies promise greener graphite. It is another thing entirely to land a direct equity investment and a board seat from the world’s largest battery maker, and that is what elevates this beyond a sustainability story. CATL does not put capital and governance rights into a pilot-stage upstream developer on the strength of a green pitch; the deal itself signals that a serious offtaker judges CarbonScape’s claims, performance matching synthetic graphite at cost parity and with a carbon-negative footprint, worth backing toward production.
The Announcement
The partnership combines CarbonScape’s proprietary process, which converts forestry by-products into battery-grade graphite, with CATL’s experience in industrialisation, manufacturing and large-scale deployment. The company said the collaboration is multi-year and spans both technical and commercial objectives.
CATL will contribute expertise in industrial scale-up, manufacturing operations, process optimisation and commercialisation, while CarbonScape brings the underlying biographite technology. Lochpine Capital, a Hong Kong-based investment firm focused on the energy transition, is investing alongside CATL as part of the same round.
For Ivan Williams, CEO of CarbonScape, the significance of the deal runs well beyond the cheque.
This partnership is about far more than capital. It provides access to CATL’s unparalleled expertise in scaling and mass production, world-class facilities, global market reach, and a clear pathway to gigafactory-scale deployment. It validates the strategic importance of biographite in the future of electrification and uniquely aligns technical de-risking with route-to-market readiness. Together, we aim to bring commercial biographite production online by the end of the decade. Ivan Williams, CEO, CarbonScape
The two key workstreams set out in the release are:
- Technology de-risking and scale-up. CarbonScape and CATL will validate the technology at demonstration scale at CATL facilities and refine the process in preparation for full-scale commercial plants.
- Strategic investment and financing. CATL, alongside Lochpine Capital, becomes a strategic shareholder in CarbonScape, helping fund de-risking and scale-up. The structure includes equity-based incentives aligned with the successful commercial deployment of the technology.
The Case for Biographite
Graphite is the single largest material in a lithium-ion cell by volume, yet the bulk of it is either processed in China or synthesised from petroleum-derived feedstock, principally needle coke, a by-product of oil refining. That combination, high volume and low diversity, is what makes an alternative route strategically valuable, and it is the gap CarbonScape is positioning its forestry-residue process to fill. Vincent Ledoux-Pedailles, the company’s Chief Commercial Officer, stated:
Graphite is the forgotten giant of the battery supply chain – the single largest material in every EV battery by volume, yet the majority of that supply is oil-based. What we have built at CarbonScape is the only proven pathway to produce battery-grade graphite from forestry residues, at target cost parity with conventional graphite and with a carbon-negative footprint. CATL’s investment is the most powerful validation this technology could receive. Vincent Ledoux-Pedailles, Chief Commercial Officer, CarbonScape
The claim that matters most for the sector is cost parity. Sustainability credentials alone have rarely been enough to displace incumbent supply; a feedstock that competes on price as well as carbon is a different proposition, and it is that combination the CATL partnership is designed to prove out at scale.
Why CATL Is Involved
The structure of the deal says as much as the stake itself. Alongside the 20% holding and board seat, the two companies will validate CarbonScape’s process at demonstration scale inside CATL’s own facilities, then refine it toward full commercial plants, the equity paired with equipment, engineers and a clear line of sight to production. Oscar Luo, Executive President and Global Head of BD, Licensing and Venture Management at CATL, stated:
Sustainable innovation across the battery value chain is essential to advancing the global energy transition. CarbonScape’s technology introduces a novel method for producing battery-grade graphite from renewable resources, embodying a true breakthrough in material science. We are excited to support this pioneering effort—one that aligns with the vision of a zero-carbon future by redefining how critical materials are sourced and produced. This is not just about scaling a process; it’s about catalyzing a shift toward fundamentally cleaner and smarter energy solutions. Oscar Luo, Executive President, Global Head of BD, Licensing and Venture Management, CATL
Existing backer Stora Enso stays on the register through the round, preserving the forestry-to-battery chain CarbonScape has built as CATL comes in at the industrial end of it.
The Companies
CarbonScape is a New Zealand-founded technology company built around a single idea: that battery-grade graphite can be made from forestry residues rather than mined flake or petroleum-derived synthetic feedstock. Its patented process turns wood by-products into anode material the company says matches leading synthetic graphite on performance while carrying a carbon-negative lifecycle footprint. It runs a pilot plant in New Zealand and, before this deal, had already drawn in forestry group Stora Enso and Amperex Technology Limited (ATL), CATL’s sister company, as strategic backers. Lochpine Capital joins that register through the current round.
CATL is the world’s largest maker of EV and energy-storage batteries. Its appetite for securing lower-carbon, non-Chinese anode supply is what makes the investment notable, and it brings the manufacturing and process-scaling capability that CarbonScape’s pilot-stage technology needs to reach commercial plants.
The parties noted that statements regarding future plans, production timelines and market developments are forward-looking, based on current expectations and assumptions, and that actual results may differ materially due to factors including market conditions, regulatory changes, technological developments and execution risks.
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