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Recently CATL filed a lawsuit against Xiamen Hithium and five affiliated entities, including its founding executives and several suppliers, on the grounds of "unfair competition."

The Intermediate People's Court of Ningde City, Fujian Province officially registered the case on June 25 and has scheduled the hearing for August 12, during the critical review period of Hithium’s Hong Kong stock exchange listing application.

The lawsuit alleges that Hithium engaged in systematic poaching of CATL’s technical personnel and developed battery products – notably, the 587 Ah cell – with specifications nearly identical to CATL's own patented designs. CATL emphasizes that the energy density deviation between the two products is just 4.4%, well below the 10% technical threshold typically used to differentiate original designs from potential infringements.

Founded in 2019, Hithium has emerged as one of the key players in the global energy storage market. On March 25th of this year, Hithium officially submitted its listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, seeking to list on the main board of the HKEX.

In just five years, the Xiamen-based company climbed to third place globally in lithium-ion storage battery shipments, trailing only CATL and EVE Energy. It now operates or is building production facilities in Xiamen, Chongqing, Shandong, and Texas, with plans to reach over 100 GWh in annual capacity by 2026.