The battery man who powered the EV age. Builder of infrastructure so critical that no one notices it—until it’s gone.
Born in 1968 in rural Fujian, China, Robin Zeng studied ship engineering, then physics, earning a PhD at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
No finance background. No branding instincts. Just a deep obsession with how energy is stored, released, and degraded over time.
In the late 1990s, Zeng joined ATL (Amperex Technology Limited), a lithium battery maker supplying phones and laptops—including Apple.
Rising to Head of R&D, he learned the brutal truth: battery science means nothing unless it works reliably at scale.
Fires, failures, recalls—manufacturing was the real exam.
Around 2008–2010, most believed EVs were niche and batteries too expensive.
Zeng saw something else: EVs wouldn’t be won by car brands— but by whoever controlled battery chemistry and supply chains.
Automakers were distracted. Battery suppliers were invisible.
Zeng spun out ATL’s EV battery unit to form Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited—CATL.
Headquartered in Ningde, not Beijing or Shanghai, CATL focused on factories, not fanfare.
No consumer branding. No hype cycles. Just production.
CATL didn’t build cars. It embedded itself inside the companies that did.
Early partners included Chinese EV startups, later BMW, Tesla, Volkswagen, Hyundai.
While others talked technology, CATL built giga-factories, secured lithium, nickel, and cobalt, and invested heavily in recycling.
CATL treated batteries like chips: yield, safety, lifespan, and cost efficiency mattered more than headlines.
A 1% efficiency gain beat a 10% marketing campaign.
EV adoption went vertical. Batteries account for 30–40% of EV cost.
CATL controlled massive share. Founder equity stayed concentrated.
Zeng didn’t ride the EV wave. He built its foundation.