The Japan Times - Sunwoda First-Half Revenue Reaches Record as Battery Shipments Accelerate

Sunwoda reported record first-half revenue of 38.18 billion yuan for 2026, an increase of 41.48 percent from the same period a year earlier. The company released its interim results on Aug. 26, attributing the performance to a recovery in the lithium-battery industry and stronger coordination across its businesses.

Consumer batteries remained the company’s base, with revenue rising 4 percent to 14.45 billion yuan. Sunwoda said it holds more than 30 percent of the worldwide mobile-phone battery market, ranking first by shipments, and ranks second in batteries for laptops and tablets.

Power batteries grew more quickly. Sunwoda entered the hybrid-electric vehicle battery sector in 2014, obtained a designation from the Renault-Nissan Alliance in 2018 and began mass production of its first-generation cells in 2019. SNE Research data placed its HEV lithium-battery installations first globally in the second quarter of 2026.

Electric-vehicle battery shipments increased 76.37 percent in the first half to 28.36 gigawatt-hours. Revenue from the business rose 85.87 percent to 14.13 billion yuan.

Energy-storage order books were full and factories operated at high utilization. Cumulative production of Sunwoda’s 684-ampere-hour laminated cell exceeded 2 million units, while the 588-ampere-hour wound cell entered production at the Deyang facility. Both are being supplied at scale. The company also recorded its highest orders to date for storage systems supporting backup power at artificial-intelligence data centers.

Research and development spending reached 2.36 billion yuan, more than 6 percent of revenue. Sunwoda is combining continued work in electrochemistry and materials with an “AI+” program covering management, factories and products. A project on intelligent lithium-battery manufacturing and defect detection received second prize in the 2025 Wu Wenjun AI Science and Technology Progress Awards.

The first phase of a battery plant in Thailand began operating during the half and construction of a second phase started at the same time. Work also continued on a power-battery base in Hungary and a consumer-cell plant in Vietnam.

To prepare for the European Union’s New Battery Regulation and digital product passport requirements, Sunwoda is developing a battery-passport platform aimed at documenting compliance and supporting partners’ sustainability obligations. In the second half, the company expects a consumer-device replacement cycle, new data-center storage production lines and a rising share of international customers to support further earnings growth.

Y.Mori--JT