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Eve Energy Heads to Hong Kong for IPO as Battery Price Wars Reshape Strategy

MarketDash Editorial Team
22 hours ago
The world's fifth-largest EV battery maker is following rival CATL to Hong Kong markets, betting on energy storage and European expansion to counter brutal price competition that has slashed battery prices by half since 2022.

Half a year can feel like a lifetime in the electric vehicle battery business, and Eve Energy is learning that lesson in real time.

When the lithium battery giant first filed to list in Hong Kong last June, investors holding its shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange barely noticed. This time around, the market paid attention. After Eve Energy refiled its Hong Kong listing application last week, its shares climbed 6% in the following days.

What changed? For starters, the company has shown signs of renewed growth since its initial filing. The Hong Kong IPO market is also having one of its hottest runs in years. And there's a helpful blueprint from Eve's larger rival CATL, which completed its own Hong Kong listing last May in what became the city's largest offering of 2024, raising $5.3 billion. Since then, CATL's Hong Kong shares have nearly doubled, which tends to make investors optimistic about similar moves.

A Growth Story Hits a Speed Bump

Eve Energy's growth trajectory mirrors the explosive rise of China's new energy vehicle market. Since its original Shenzhen listing back in 2009, the company has posted average annual revenue growth of 43.9% and profit growth of 36.4%, according to its latest listing document. Those are impressive numbers by any standard.

But 2024 threw a wrench in the works. Revenue actually declined slightly that year, dropping to 48.6 billion yuan ($7 billion) from 48.8 billion yuan the previous year. The top line has since recovered, with revenue jumping 32% year-over-year to 45 billion yuan in the first nine months of 2025. The profit picture tells a different story though. Net income fell 9.1% during that same period to 2.9 million yuan, showing that growth alone doesn't solve everything when margins are under pressure.

Eve Energy ranks as a major player in the EV battery world, though its Shenzhen market cap of 144 billion yuan is less than a tenth of CATL's 1.7 trillion yuan valuation. Still, a successful Hong Kong listing would put Eve in exclusive company alongside CATL as the only Chinese battery makers with dual listings in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. That's notable considering nine of the world's top 10 EV battery manufacturers are Chinese companies.

Strategic Pivot from Malaysia to Hungary

When Eve Energy filed its initial prospectus last June, reports suggested the company aimed to raise around HK$30 billion ($3.85 billion). The world has shifted considerably since then, and so have Eve's plans. Most significantly, the company has scrapped plans for a third phase of its Malaysian factory, which was originally slated to receive a major chunk of IPO proceeds.

Instead, Eve is redirecting those funds toward a 30 GWh factory in Debrecin, Hungary, focused on next-generation EV batteries for the European market. The Hungary facility is scheduled to start production in 2027. This pivot might look like confidence in European expansion, but it's also a response to increasingly difficult conditions in Eve's core battery business, where intensifying competition and volatile lithium prices have squeezed the entire industry.

Lithium, the key ingredient in today's most advanced batteries, has been causing headaches across the supply chain. Four major cathode manufacturers recently halted production for a month in apparent protest of rising lithium prices, according to Chinese media reports. CATL itself announced at a supplier conference last year that it's targeting mass deployment of sodium-ion batteries, which use much cheaper and more environmentally friendly sodium technology, to reduce dependence on lithium.

Three Business Segments, One Founder's Vision

Eve Energy has an advantage over some competitors in that it doesn't rely solely on EV batteries. The company also produces batteries for energy storage systems and maintains a significant presence in consumer batteries, which is where founder Liu Jincheng started.

Liu, who holds a chemistry degree, left his job at a power plant in 1994 to launch his own business. His first venture failed, but his second attempt, Huizhou Jinda Electronics, found success making batteries for personal handy phones (an early mobile phone type), vapes, electronic toll collection systems, and earphones. After rebranding as Eve Energy, the company expanded into power batteries for EVs and energy storage in 2015.

Eve invests heavily in research and development, spending 2.9 billion yuan in 2024, which represents 6.1% of total revenue. The company operates seven research institutes and employs an R&D workforce exceeding 6,000 people.

Those investments have paid off in market positioning. Eve Energy ranks among the top three consumer battery makers globally with 11.7% market share by shipment volume, according to independent research cited in the prospectus. It's one of the top five Chinese manufacturers of EV power batteries, holding 2.8% of the global market in 2024, and the second-largest energy storage battery supplier worldwide with 17.2% market share.

In the first nine months of 2025, consumer batteries generated 8.26 billion yuan in revenue, representing 18.3% of Eve's total. Power batteries brought in 19.6 billion yuan, or 43.6% of revenue. Storage batteries contributed 17.1 billion yuan, accounting for 37.9% of total revenue.

Price Wars and Strategic Response

The biggest challenge facing Eve Energy and its competitors has been chaos in the crowded EV battery industry. Falling prices from intensifying competition caused Eve's average selling price to plunge by nearly half, from 1.1 billion yuan per GWh in 2022 to 600 million yuan per GWh in the first nine months of 2025. That's brutal.

The company is responding by turning down the heat on its power battery business through two main strategies: ramping up its energy storage battery operations and expanding overseas sales where competition is less fierce. Overseas sales accounted for 23.4% of revenue in the first nine months of 2025, primarily to South Korea and the European Union. The Hungary factory, combined with the existing Malaysian facility, is critical to boosting those international sales when it comes online in 2027.

Energy storage batteries could be the real lifeline. This segment has grown from 26% of revenue in 2022 to 37.9% in 2025, driven by massive construction of renewable energy power stations that require electricity storage systems. The International Energy Agency forecasts 2025 storage battery sales of $66 billion, up 16% over 2024, with Chinese companies occupying all six top supplier spots.

There's a catch though. While energy storage batteries show strong growth potential, they carry the lowest gross margin of Eve's three main product segments at just 11.2%. EV batteries achieve a gross margin of 15.3%, while consumer batteries deliver the highest margins at 26.8%. So Eve is growing by selling more of its least profitable product, which explains why revenue can climb while profits decline.

The company is essentially making a calculated bet that scale and market position in energy storage will matter more than short-term margin pressure, banking on the massive buildout of renewable energy infrastructure to drive long-term demand. Whether that bet pays off will depend on how quickly the energy storage market grows and whether Eve can eventually improve those margins as the business matures.

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Eve Energy Heads to Hong Kong for IPO as Battery Price Wars Reshape Strategy

MarketDash Editorial Team
22 hours ago
The world's fifth-largest EV battery maker is following rival CATL to Hong Kong markets, betting on energy storage and European expansion to counter brutal price competition that has slashed battery prices by half since 2022.

Half a year can feel like a lifetime in the electric vehicle battery business, and Eve Energy is learning that lesson in real time.

When the lithium battery giant first filed to list in Hong Kong last June, investors holding its shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange barely noticed. This time around, the market paid attention. After Eve Energy refiled its Hong Kong listing application last week, its shares climbed 6% in the following days.

What changed? For starters, the company has shown signs of renewed growth since its initial filing. The Hong Kong IPO market is also having one of its hottest runs in years. And there's a helpful blueprint from Eve's larger rival CATL, which completed its own Hong Kong listing last May in what became the city's largest offering of 2024, raising $5.3 billion. Since then, CATL's Hong Kong shares have nearly doubled, which tends to make investors optimistic about similar moves.

A Growth Story Hits a Speed Bump

Eve Energy's growth trajectory mirrors the explosive rise of China's new energy vehicle market. Since its original Shenzhen listing back in 2009, the company has posted average annual revenue growth of 43.9% and profit growth of 36.4%, according to its latest listing document. Those are impressive numbers by any standard.

But 2024 threw a wrench in the works. Revenue actually declined slightly that year, dropping to 48.6 billion yuan ($7 billion) from 48.8 billion yuan the previous year. The top line has since recovered, with revenue jumping 32% year-over-year to 45 billion yuan in the first nine months of 2025. The profit picture tells a different story though. Net income fell 9.1% during that same period to 2.9 million yuan, showing that growth alone doesn't solve everything when margins are under pressure.

Eve Energy ranks as a major player in the EV battery world, though its Shenzhen market cap of 144 billion yuan is less than a tenth of CATL's 1.7 trillion yuan valuation. Still, a successful Hong Kong listing would put Eve in exclusive company alongside CATL as the only Chinese battery makers with dual listings in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. That's notable considering nine of the world's top 10 EV battery manufacturers are Chinese companies.

Strategic Pivot from Malaysia to Hungary

When Eve Energy filed its initial prospectus last June, reports suggested the company aimed to raise around HK$30 billion ($3.85 billion). The world has shifted considerably since then, and so have Eve's plans. Most significantly, the company has scrapped plans for a third phase of its Malaysian factory, which was originally slated to receive a major chunk of IPO proceeds.

Instead, Eve is redirecting those funds toward a 30 GWh factory in Debrecin, Hungary, focused on next-generation EV batteries for the European market. The Hungary facility is scheduled to start production in 2027. This pivot might look like confidence in European expansion, but it's also a response to increasingly difficult conditions in Eve's core battery business, where intensifying competition and volatile lithium prices have squeezed the entire industry.

Lithium, the key ingredient in today's most advanced batteries, has been causing headaches across the supply chain. Four major cathode manufacturers recently halted production for a month in apparent protest of rising lithium prices, according to Chinese media reports. CATL itself announced at a supplier conference last year that it's targeting mass deployment of sodium-ion batteries, which use much cheaper and more environmentally friendly sodium technology, to reduce dependence on lithium.

Three Business Segments, One Founder's Vision

Eve Energy has an advantage over some competitors in that it doesn't rely solely on EV batteries. The company also produces batteries for energy storage systems and maintains a significant presence in consumer batteries, which is where founder Liu Jincheng started.

Liu, who holds a chemistry degree, left his job at a power plant in 1994 to launch his own business. His first venture failed, but his second attempt, Huizhou Jinda Electronics, found success making batteries for personal handy phones (an early mobile phone type), vapes, electronic toll collection systems, and earphones. After rebranding as Eve Energy, the company expanded into power batteries for EVs and energy storage in 2015.

Eve invests heavily in research and development, spending 2.9 billion yuan in 2024, which represents 6.1% of total revenue. The company operates seven research institutes and employs an R&D workforce exceeding 6,000 people.

Those investments have paid off in market positioning. Eve Energy ranks among the top three consumer battery makers globally with 11.7% market share by shipment volume, according to independent research cited in the prospectus. It's one of the top five Chinese manufacturers of EV power batteries, holding 2.8% of the global market in 2024, and the second-largest energy storage battery supplier worldwide with 17.2% market share.

In the first nine months of 2025, consumer batteries generated 8.26 billion yuan in revenue, representing 18.3% of Eve's total. Power batteries brought in 19.6 billion yuan, or 43.6% of revenue. Storage batteries contributed 17.1 billion yuan, accounting for 37.9% of total revenue.

Price Wars and Strategic Response

The biggest challenge facing Eve Energy and its competitors has been chaos in the crowded EV battery industry. Falling prices from intensifying competition caused Eve's average selling price to plunge by nearly half, from 1.1 billion yuan per GWh in 2022 to 600 million yuan per GWh in the first nine months of 2025. That's brutal.

The company is responding by turning down the heat on its power battery business through two main strategies: ramping up its energy storage battery operations and expanding overseas sales where competition is less fierce. Overseas sales accounted for 23.4% of revenue in the first nine months of 2025, primarily to South Korea and the European Union. The Hungary factory, combined with the existing Malaysian facility, is critical to boosting those international sales when it comes online in 2027.

Energy storage batteries could be the real lifeline. This segment has grown from 26% of revenue in 2022 to 37.9% in 2025, driven by massive construction of renewable energy power stations that require electricity storage systems. The International Energy Agency forecasts 2025 storage battery sales of $66 billion, up 16% over 2024, with Chinese companies occupying all six top supplier spots.

There's a catch though. While energy storage batteries show strong growth potential, they carry the lowest gross margin of Eve's three main product segments at just 11.2%. EV batteries achieve a gross margin of 15.3%, while consumer batteries deliver the highest margins at 26.8%. So Eve is growing by selling more of its least profitable product, which explains why revenue can climb while profits decline.

The company is essentially making a calculated bet that scale and market position in energy storage will matter more than short-term margin pressure, banking on the massive buildout of renewable energy infrastructure to drive long-term demand. Whether that bet pays off will depend on how quickly the energy storage market grows and whether Eve can eventually improve those margins as the business matures.