CarbonScape secures a powerful partner to industrialize its sustainable graphite battery materials

New Zealand-founded CarbonScape has developed a proprietary process that converts forestry by-products into battery-grade graphite, potentially creating a sustainable domestic source for a critical battery material. Today, more than 75% of the graphite used in batteries comes from oil-based feedstocks. (Read our in-depth interview with CarbonScape Chief Commercial Officer Vincent Ledoux Pedailles.)

Now Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s largest battery manufacturer, has entered into a strategic investment partnership with CarbonScape. The collaboration combines CarbonScape’s innovative biographite technology with CATL’s extensive experience in industrialization, manufacturing and large-scale deployment.

CATL, along with Lochpine Capital, is now a strategic shareholder in CarbonScape, and will have representation on CarbonScape’s board. The companies will validate the technology at demonstration scale at CATL facilities, and refine the process in preparation for full-scale commercial plants.

The partnership structure includes equity-based incentives aligned with the successful commercial deployment of CarbonScape’s technology.

“This partnership is about far more than capital,” said Ivan Williams, CEO of CarbonScape. “It provides access to CATL’s unparalleled expertise in scaling and mass production, world-class facilities, global market reach, and a clear pathway to gigafactory-scale deployment. It validates the strategic importance of biographite in the future of electrification. Together, we aim to bring commercial biographite production online by the end of the decade.”

“CarbonScape’s technology introduces a novel method for producing battery-grade graphite from renewable resources, embodying a true breakthrough in material science,” said CATL Executive President Oscar Luo. “This is not just about scaling a process—it’s about catalysing a shift toward fundamentally cleaner and smarter energy solutions.”

“Graphite is the forgotten giant of the battery supply chain—the single largest material in every EV battery by volume—yet the majority of that supply is oil-based,” said Vincent Ledoux-Pedailles. “What we have built at CarbonScape is the only proven pathway to produce battery-grade graphite from forestry residues, at target cost parity with conventional graphite and with a carbon-negative footprint. CATL’s investment is the most powerful validation this technology could receive.”

Source: CarbonScape