CRRC Zhuzhou taps Hithium for massive 120 GWh battery supply deal

Hithium will supply at least 120 GWh of battery energy storage products to Chinese rail and power equipment group CRRC Zhuzhou Institute between 2026 and 2030 under one of the largest bilateral procurement deals disclosed to date in China’s energy storage sector.

The agreement, signed on December 5, 2025, commits Hithium to deliver a portfolio of lithium iron phosphate cells, including its 314Ah, ∞Cell 587Ah and ∞Cell 1175Ah products, to the comprehensive energy division of CRRC Zhuzhou Institute. Executives from both sides attended the signing, including Wu Zuyu, HiTHIUM’s founder and chairman, and Tang Yuanyuan, vice-president of CRRC Zhuzhou.

The partnership builds on earlier cooperation between the two companies. Hithium’s ∞Cell 587Ah has already been deployed in CRRC Zhuzhou’s latest 6.25 MWh battery container systems, which have been delivered in volume to high-renewable regions in north-west China, with cumulative project scale exceeding 1 GWh. These projects served as large-scale field validation for the compatibility between ultra-large-format cells and high-capacity system integration.

At the core of the new agreement is Hithium’s strategy to push large-format “6.X” storage architectures into mass deployment. The ∞Cell 1175Ah, first unveiled in 2024 and brought into mass production in June 2025, completed its first global deliveries of 6.25MWh, four-hour long-duration systems in October. Together with the 587Ah variant, derived directly from the 1175Ah platform, the two products form what Hithium calls a dual-engine architecture covering multiple duration and application scenarios.

For CRRC Zhuzhou, the deal secures long-term access to high-capacity battery supply as it scales its system-integration footprint across utility-scale, industrial, commercial and distributed storage. For Hithium, the agreement represents not only a substantial order book but also a deep connection with one of China’s most influential power equipment groups, extending cooperation from cells to modules, systems and end-use applications.

The scale of the contract highlights the rapid consolidation of China’s storage supply chain around a small group of leading players. According to InfoLink, Hithium ranked second globally in energy-storage cell shipments in the first three quarters of 2025, behind CATL; while CRRC Zhuzhou Institute ranked fourth worldwide in system shipments, after Tesla, Sungrow and BYD.

Hithium’s commercial momentum has accelerated sharply this year. In the first half of 2025, it reported storage battery shipments of 30 GWh, up 252.9% year on year, and revenue of CNY 6.97bn, more than tripling from a year earlier. In October, it signed a 2 GWh supply agreement with Solarpro, followed by a 1.5 GWh long-duration storage project with Israel’s El-Mor Renewable Energy in November.

The partnership reflects a broader shift in China’s storage sector from aggressive price competition towards what industry executives describe as “deep-water” competition, including safety, lifetime, efficiency and supply chain stability. By locking in 120 GWh of demand over five years, Hithium and CRRC Zhuzhou are effectively betting that ultra-large-capacity architectures will define the next phase of grid-scale storage deployment, both domestically and abroad.

If executed in full, the agreement would rank among the most significant long-term supply pacts signed between a battery maker and a system integrator in the global storage industry to date.