China Battery Production: The 2024-2025 Time Series

Battery Market Intelligence · MIIT data · Last reviewed 2026-09-16

Direct answer: China's lithium-ion battery production reached 1,170 GWh in 2024 — up 24% year-on-year, split between 826 GWh of power batteries and 260 GWh of storage-grade cells. For 2025, output is on track to pass 1,500 GWh (+28%), with storage accelerating toward 550 GWh — roughly doubling in a year.

The production time series (MIIT)

PeriodTotalPower batteriesStorage-grade
20241,170 GWh (+24% YoY)826 GWh260 GWh
2025 (projected)>1,500 GWh (+28%)~550 GWh

Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), industry reporting.

Our calculation

The storage surge: 260 GWh (2024) to ~550 GWh (2025) is roughly +112% in one year — storage is now the fastest layer of Chinese production, compounding far faster than the ~24–28% overall growth. Power batteries were about 71% of 2024 output (826 ÷ 1,170); the storage share is rising quickly.

What the numbers mean

The production series mirrors the market structure: power batteries carry the volume, but storage carries the growth — the same two-engine shape as the demand forecast. Output growing at ~25% per year means roughly a decade's tripling every five years of the base, which is why capacity keeps racing demand (see China's lithium industry).

The Author's Take

My read: China's production series is best read as two growth rates, not one total — power batteries compounding at ~25%, storage at over 100% — and the storage rate is the number that will reshape the industry's structure this decade.

Why: The total masks the shift. Storage doubling annually changes the mix within a few years — exactly the structural change that capacity plans, price forecasts and export structures must be built around, not just observed.

My editorial view, not investment or purchasing advice.

Sources

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