Chinese battery maker CBAK Energy announced on August 20, 2026, a plan to boost production capacity for its large cylindrical "Model 32140 FS" cells at its Nanjing Phase 2 plant, expanding the current annual capacity of 3 GWh to a long-term target of 18 GWh. However, 18 GWh does not represent the scale of equipment already in operation. As of July, daily production capacity stood at 80.8% of the year-end target, and in the first quarter of 2026, startup costs for new lines were squeezing gross margins. It's important to distinguish between the annual production capacity of equipment, the processing speed of individual manufacturing steps, and the volume that can be stably shipped.
18 GWh Is a Long-Term Plan; Actual Operations Run at 177,800 Cells Per Day
The current annual production capacity at Nanjing Phase 2, as announced, is 3 GWh. The long-term target of 18 GWh is six times that figure, but no timeline or additional investment amount has been disclosed. The funding method and number of additional lines to be added also remain unknown. While the planned floor area spans approximately 270,000 square meters across a site of roughly 23.8 hectares, this is not an announcement that all buildings and equipment have been completed.
| Timing | Capacity/Results Disclosed by CBAK | Interpretable Status |
|---|---|---|
| December 2024 | Phase 1 actual capacity approx. 1.3 GWh; Phase 2 long-term design 27 GWh | Equipment procurement completed for the first 2 lines, totaling 3 GWh |
| End of December 2025 | Phase 1: 1.5 GWh; Phase 2 (2 lines): up to 3 GWh | Still ramping up after mass production began. 3 GWh expected to be reached by early 2027 |
| July 2026 | 177,800 cells/day | Up 174.0% from 64,900 cells/day in January; 80.8% of the year-end target of 220,000 cells/day |
| August 2026 | Phase 2 currently at 3 GWh; long-term plan of 18 GWh | Timeline and investment amount for reaching 18 GWh not yet disclosed |
The gap between annual production capacity and actual operations is evident even within the company's own disclosures. In its 2025 annual report, CBAK stated that while the two Phase 2 lines had begun mass production, it expected to reach full capacity of 3 GWh by early 2027. The August 13 operational update also indicates July's daily production capacity at 177,800 cells, with a year-end 2026 target of 220,000 cells. Therefore, the 3 GWh figure represents an annual capacity value, not a track record of stably shipping finished cells at that same pace.
The long-term plan itself has also shifted over time. In December 2024, CBAK described a design to expand Phase 2 to 27 GWh. Subsequently, in its 2025 annual report, the company revised the overall Nanjing plan to approximately 20 GWh upon completion, reverting to a structure where Phase 2 would add 18 GWh. The latest announcement states Phase 2's long-term capacity as 18 GWh. No reason has been disclosed for the change from the earlier 27 GWh figure.
According to the annual report, Phase 2 consists of three large factory buildings, and as of the end of 2025, production equipment had been installed in only the first of these buildings. Subsidies received by CBAK from the Gaochun Economic Development Zone through the end of that year totaled 61 million yuan (approximately $8.7 million). The completion status of the remaining buildings and the total investment required to reach 18 GWh have not been disclosed this time either.
240 Cells Per Minute Refers to the Winding Process
The most eye-catching figure in the announcement—"up to 240 cells per minute"—refers to the processing speed of equipment that winds electrodes to form the coiled core inside each cell. It does not mean that 240 finished cells emerge from the factory every minute. A separate process involving laser welding while running current collector discs is rated at up to 120 cells per minute per unit. Laser penetration welding at the cell bottom takes an average of about 0.35 seconds per point and reportedly expands the current-carrying area by about one-third.
The Model 32140 FS is a large full-tab cylindrical cell using lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry. CBAK has introduced rotary equipment that flattens the tabs after winding and forms them in a single process across nearly the entire circumference. In electrode fabrication, the company states that continuous two-roll pressing of the negative electrode improves thickness uniformity by 30%, while induction heating of the positive electrode reduces web breakage during high-speed processing. However, the baseline and measurement conditions for the 30% improvement figure have not been disclosed.
Process speed alone cannot be used to calculate a factory's annual output. This would require the number of units in operation, operating hours, downtime for changeovers and maintenance, downstream process capacity, and yield rates—none of which CBAK has disclosed. While 240 cells per minute is useful for identifying potential bottlenecks, it is not a verified production figure supporting the 3 GWh or 18 GWh capacity claims.
Per-Cell Digital IDs and Quality Control
At Nanjing Phase 2, UV marking links each finished cell's identification code with the code of its internal wound core, enabling traceability of manufacturing history for each individual cell. More than 100 critical parameters are inspected and tracked in-line. This system is designed to help narrow down which process conditions to investigate when quality issues arise.
Automated guided vehicles are used to transport materials between processes, and CBAK states that the core manufacturing processes it has defined are 100% automated. Here, "100%" does not mean that all factory operations—from raw material receiving to shipping—have become fully unmanned. This is because the scope of automation is limited to processes the company has designated as "core."
The same caution applies to AI-based weld inspection. CBAK announced that within a defined inspection scope, it achieved 100% detection of "insufficient penetration" weld defects. This applies to a specific defect type and is not a claim of catching all possible defects without exception. No third-party test results have been provided. Whether this truly proves effective at scale will depend on false-positive rates, the sample size for missed defects, and yield rates after line speeds are increased.
Shipments Double, But Latest Major Order Doesn't Specify a Factory
Shipments of the Model 32140 reached 32.55 million cells from January through July 2026, up 101.5% from 16.15 million cells in the same period last year. This also exceeds the full-year 2025 total of 29.98 million cells by 8.6%. As of August 7, cumulative deliveries reached 92 million cells, confirming that the product has moved beyond the prototype stage. However, cumulative deliveries, seven-month shipments, and Nanjing Phase 2's daily production capacity cover different time periods and metrics, so they cannot simply be added together.
On August 25, CBAK announced an order worth approximately $96 million (pre-tax) for cells from an Indian two- and three-wheeler manufacturer, to be delivered by 2027. The company stated this order would bring a specified manufacturing facility to full capacity. The customer name, cell model, and factory name were not disclosed, and there is no evidence directly linking this order to the Model 32140 or Nanjing Phase 2.
There is more specific evidence regarding demand at Nanjing, however. In its 2025 annual report, CBAK stated that the two Phase 1 lines were operating at full capacity and that new Phase 2 capacity had already been allocated to pending production orders. The subsequent rise in shipments and daily production capacity supports this account of ongoing ramp-up. That said, there has been no disclosure confirming that buyers have been secured for the full 18 GWh of planned capacity.
Success of Expansion Will Be Measured by Gross Margin, Not Capacity
Consolidated revenue for the first quarter of 2026 was $69.62 million, up 99.3% from $34.94 million in the same period last year. Battery segment revenue also grew 84.3%, from $20.36 million to $37.52 million. However, consolidated gross profit fell from $4.80 million to $1.04 million, with gross margin dropping from 13.7% to 1.5%. CBAK cited rising unit costs from the ramp-up of new production capacity, along with an inability to fully pass rising raw material costs on to customers, as the main factors.
Capital expenditure for the quarter totaled $11.8 million, though the amount allocated to Nanjing specifically was not disclosed. Additional investment required to reach 18 GWh has also not been made public. The company itself has listed funding, construction, equipment installation, and utilization and yield rates among the risks involved in turning this plan into reality.
The first milestones to watch will be reaching 220,000 cells per day by the end of 2026 and achieving the 3 GWh annual capacity target for the two Phase 2 lines by early 2027. For the subsequent 18 GWh plan to become credible, CBAK will need to provide not only a timeline and funding for additional equipment, but also numerical evidence that gross margins can recover even as production scales up.