Nearly 1 billion yuan invested, CATL secures stake in Blue Electric.

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Author | Zhou Zhiyu

Over the past two years, Chinese car companies have intensively adjusted the capital structure of their brands. Geely completed the privatization of Zeekr and consolidated Lynk & Co., Changan promoted independent financing for Deep Blue, and Seres has also accelerated its operations.

On May 25, Seres announced that its subsidiary Blue Power Technology signed a capital increase agreement with investors, bringing in a total of 6.67 billion yuan. CATL’s wholly-owned subsidiary Wending Investment contributed nearly 1 billion yuan (about RMB 984 million), Chongqing’s state-owned platform Shaci Zhiyuan became the largest shareholder, Seres became the second largest shareholder, and Blue Power Technology turned into an associate company, no longer consolidated.

The capital market also responded positively to this deal. At the close of May 26, Seres led the automobile sector, rising 5.28%, while the Wind automobile industry index rose slightly by 0.14% that day.

At present, the primary market for new energy vehicles is no longer what it was three years ago, and many brands have fallen in the past two years. Car companies are splitting brands and doing subtraction, while battery manufacturers are doing addition with equity. Blue Power Technology got the largest single investment in CATL's public investment records in car companies.

The relationship between CATL and Seres has thus become more deeply intertwined.

Divestment

On the morning of May 26, the day after Blue Power Technology's capital increase announcement, Xingyu Co.'s Chongqing subsidiary held its opening ceremony at Qingfeng Kechuang City in Shapingba District. Seres Chairman Zhang Xinghai attended, speaking as a key customer representative, saying the two sides should "deepen technological co-creation and resource interconnection."

The night before, they had just signed the capital increase agreement, and the next day Zhang Xinghai was at the opening ceremony of one of the investors' factories.

Blue Power is a budget new energy brand launched by Seres in 2023, targeting the 100,000 to 150,000 yuan market, forming a high-low partnership with the above-300,000 yuan average of Aito. The target of this capital increase, Blue Power Technology, is a newly established company entity this April, specially undertaking Blue Power Auto's related assets.

The investors this time have unusual relationships with Seres. According to transaction information, after the capital increase, Shaci Zhiyuan holds 34.5%, Seres holds 32.96% via Saihu Company, the employee shareholding platform Yuexing Jiasheng holds 16.48%, Wending Investment, Bojun Technology, and Xingyu Co. together hold about 16%. The board has five seats, with Seres appointing one member.

After the transaction, Blue Power becomes an associate company, Seres retains about 33% equity, corresponding to an asset value exceeding 3 billion based on the nearly 10 billion implied valuation of this round.

People close to Seres said that most of the capital introduced this time is industrial, which will form a synergistic effect with Blue Power.

Xingyu is not simply a financial investor; in the first quarter of 2026, Seres is Xingyu's third-largest customer, accounting for over 10% of revenue and supporting models like Aito M9. Seres is also an important customer to another investor, Bojun Technology.

Geographically, it’s even clearer. Blue Power Technology is registered in Shapingba; Xingyu's newly opened Chongqing factory is in Qingfeng Kechuang City, Shapingba; Bojun's Shapingba factory has been completed. The largest shareholder, Shaci Zhiyuan, was only established on April 13, 2026, with a registered capital of 1.4 billion yuan. Penetrating the equity shows it has both Shapingba district state capital and Chongqing city-level state capital. Both municipal and district authorities are betting together, Seres suppliers are setting up factories and investing in the same district, and the local government is forming a localized supply chain cluster around Blue Power.

The preparation for this transaction began much earlier than outsiders realized.

As early as September 2025, Seres and Shapingba District's SOE Committee jointly set up a Chongqing Blue Power Auto Technology Co., Ltd., with Seres holding 35% and the SOE side holding 65% in total.

On February 8, 2026, Seres officially announced the cooperation agreement with Shapingba District Government, putting Blue Power divestment on the table. However, in late March there was a reversal, as Seres once again took back 100% of Blue Power’s shares, raising doubts about the deal’s progress. But soon after, on April 14, Blue Power Technology was registered, and the transaction returned to track. On May 25, the five parties signed and landed the deal. Counting from last September, this chess game took eight months.

There’s another detail in the shareholder agreement: when investors transfer equity, they can’t transfer to Blue Power Technology's competitors or their affiliates, nor can they transfer to asset management products or contract-type private funds not in line with listing rules. With competition lock-in plus equity constraints friendly to listing, the parties did not exclude the path for future independent listing of Blue Power when signing.

After independence, Blue Power Technology holds nearly 6.7 billion yuan in cash, backed by Chongqing city and district-level state capital, CATL’s industrial capital, two core suppliers’ equity binding, and an employee incentive structure. Seres is fully focused on Aito.

Blue Power and Aito have two different tech systems. Aito uses Seres' own DE-i super range-extending system and CATL battery, combined with Huawei's full-stack intelligence, with an average price above 300,000 yuan. Blue Power goes a different route, using BYD’s Fudi DHT hybrid system and batteries from Gotion High-Tech and Envision Power, only combining the basic Huawei HiCar smart cockpit, and selling in the 100,000 yuan range.

At the millionth Aito off-line ceremony in January 2026, Zhang Xinghai said the second million would be completed within two years. Blue Power going off the books allows Seres to focus all resources on this target.

Binding

CATL’s move this time is also extraordinary.

According to an incomplete count by Wallstreetcn based on public information, in the past five years CATL has intensively invested in a string of companies across the auto industry chain through its wholly owned subsidiary Wending Investment or directly from the parent company.

Excluding undisclosed investment data, CATL’s 984 million yuan investment via Wending Investment ranks first among CATL's investments in car companies. Previously, the largest single investment by Wending Investment was in 2021, acquiring a seat as the second-largest shareholder in Avatr with about 770 million yuan, holding roughly 14.1% shares.

In mid-May 2026, Wending Investment also made a paid-in investment of 300 million yuan, participating in Qijing Auto's over 1 billion yuan strategic capital increase, making it the single-largest investor in that round.

An analyst from a foreign investment bank told Wallstreetcn that the current enthusiasm for investing in the new energy vehicles sector is far weaker than three or four years ago; currently, there are not many who can invest nearly 1 billion yuan in a car company’s financing.

If you look at Blue Power’s supplier list, it becomes clear. Blue Power E5 uses Gotion High-Tech and Envision Power ternary lithium batteries, E5 PLUS uses Gotion High-Tech lithium iron phosphate. In Blue Power Auto’s battery supply chain, CATL is not the main player.

But the depth of cooperation between CATL and Seres makes CATL willing to spend big.

At the end of June 2025, CATL built a high-end battery production line inside Seres’ Chongqing super factory, embedding manufacturing into the vehicle factory—the “factory within a factory” model officially landed. On Seres’ Super Tech Day in April 2026, Seres became one of the first six car companies to join CATL’s ultra-swap sharing network.

From supplying to cooperating, to jointly building infrastructure, and finally to equity, CATL and Seres have become increasingly closely bound over the past three years.

With the Aito line, CATL is already very tightly bound. Investing in Blue Power extends CATL's reach into the parts of the Seres system it had not yet covered.

Blue Power’s hybrid system comes from BYD Fudi, while BYD happens to be Blue Power's biggest competitor in the 100,000 yuan market. Seres itself has mature range-extender technology; in 2025, Seres held 37.5% market share in range extenders, ranking first in the industry.

Blue Power has nearly 6.7 billion yuan in cash ready to expand production and push out new models. What batteries and power systems these new vehicles will use next is the most important signal to watch.

Blue Power is not CATL's only case of using equity to secure an entry ticket. Wending Investment currently also holds equity in Chery and Zhiji, and the CATL system has Avatr Technology shares. Adding Blue Power, this list covers the range from over 300,000 yuan all the way down to 100,000 yuan.

The commonality among these brands is their extreme need for certainty in battery supply. Chery is making a large-scale shift from ICE cars, Zhiji and Avatr are backed by big groups. They are willing to exchange equity for supply; CATL is willing to exchange capital for market share.

As overcapacity in the battery industry leads to an elimination race, CATL is using equity to transform itself from a supplier that can be price-compared and swapped out, into a role embedded in the customer's governance structure. Now, there’s another name on CATL’s list.

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