Battery shortage intensifies as 100 Ah cells sell out into 2026
Source：pv magazine
China’s battery champions are racing to add capacity as a tightening supply of small-format cells ripples through the global energy storage market. At an online briefing on October 20, Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) told investors it was “fully advancing global capacity construction” to meet surging orders. The company’s third-quarter revenue rose 12.9% year on year to RMB 104.19 billion ($14.6 billion), while net profit increased 41.21% to RMB 18.55 billion, underscoring resilient demand.
Yet pressure is most acute in stationary storage. An EVE Energy representative stated that “battery capacity is currently tight – high-end capacity has always been tight,” echoing reports that leading storage-cell lines are running at full tilt and second-tier producers are operating above 80% utilization.
The bottleneck is sharpest in 100 Ah cells, a mainstay for residential systems. Market data indicate order backlogs now extend to February 2026. Prices have climbed from about RMB 0.33/Wh at the start of the year to above RMB 0.40/Wh, with urgent orders exceeding Rmb0.45/Wh. Shipments of small-storage cells reached 21.64 GWh in the first half, up 72.38% year on year, with second-quarter volumes surpassing 10 GWh for the first time. Europe’s storage additions hit 12 GWh in the period, up 210%, with home systems accounting for more than 60%.
Producers are responding with a fresh expansion cycle. Since the second quarter, CATL, BYD, EVE Energy and Gotion High-Tech have announced new projects. CATL’s Luoyang base has brought a phase-two cell and pack plant online, adding 30 GWh at full run-rate, while phase-three and phase-four structures are being topped out. The group signed an 80 GWh “high-performance” project in Xiamen and started work on a 40 GWh green manufacturing base in Dongying. BYD is expanding battery lines in Zhengzhou and pack capacity in Changsha; Gotion is advancing 20 GWh projects in Nanjing and Wuhu.
Even so, the supply response is uneven. Much of the new investment targets large-format cells of 300Ah and above – prized in utility-scale storage for lower system cost and simpler integration – rather than the 50Ah–100Ah formats that dominate home systems. Analysts describe the wave as “top-tier concentration with scaled add-ons,” a structural optimisation after earlier, indiscriminate expansion. Evidence of strain surfaced in August when China Electrical Equipment Group’s 7.248 GWh central procurement for storage cells saw the 50 Ah and 100 Ah packages fail to award, highlighting a mismatch at the small-cell end.
Technology shifts are reinforcing this tilt. Cells of 314 Ah have displaced 280 Ah across grid, commercial and even residential uses, reaching a market share above 65%, while 500Ah-plus designs edge toward mass production. Older 280 Ah lines are making a “technical exit,” crimping effective supply. Several manufacturers, including Huawei and other system integrators, are pushing higher-capacity cell platforms into residential systems alongside more modular, all-in-one designs.
Policy tailwinds are likely to keep demand elevated. From January to August, domestic storage tenders exceeded 210 GWh, up 1.5 times year on year. A national action plan for 2025–2027 targets more than 180 GW of new-type storage by 2027, with lithium-ion expected to dominate. Against that backdrop, CATL executives said capacity constraints should “gradually ease over the next one to two quarters,” adding that deliveries were “not the biggest problem.” Industry participants, however, expect the structural shortage in small-format cells to persist into the first half of 2026 as expansions work through commissioning and qualification.