Skip to main content

About China Industry Insights

 

About Li Na Chen

Lead Analyst, Energy & EV — China Industry Intel

Who I Am



My name is Li Na Chen. I lead the EVs, Batteries & Energy coverage at China Industry Intel (CII), an independent media and intelligence platform covering China's most consequential industries.

Before joining CII, I worked at CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited), the world's largest battery manufacturer. My time inside CATL gave me a ground-level view of how battery cells are engineered, scaled, and priced — and how the entire EV and energy storage supply chain actually moves.

I write for the audience I used to be part of: industry insiders, investors, and supply-chain analysts who need to understand not just what happened in China's energy and EV sectors, but why it matters and where it's heading.

What I Cover

My reporting at CII spans the full EV and energy value chain:

  • Automakers: Strategy, exports, model pipelines — from BYD's global expansion to NIO's battery swap networks.
  • Battery technology: Chemistry shifts (LFP, ternary, sodium-ion), manufacturing capacity, cost curves. Deep coverage of CATL, CATL Energy Storage, and the materials ecosystem.
  • Renewable energy: Solar, wind, grid-scale storage deployment, and the industrial energy demand that drives it all.
  • Policy & regulation: Subsidies, mandates, grid reform, and how Beijing's industrial policy reshapes competitive dynamics.
  • Materials & supply chain: Lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and the geopolitical fault lines underneath them.

Explore all my coverage: EVs, Batteries & Energy — Full Archive →

My Connection to CII

I'm one of six lead analysts at China Industry Intel. CII is an independent platform — no corporate parent, no government affiliation. Our reporting rules are simple: every factual claim needs a traceable source, every analysis is clearly separated from reported facts, and every error gets corrected transparently.

CII covers six core areas. I own the energy and EV beat, but the cross-connections are the point:

Coverage AreaLead AnalystWhere I Cross Over
EVs, Batteries & EnergyLi Na Chen (me)—
SemiconductorsDon ShenPower semiconductors for EVs, SiC/GaN
Robotics & ManufacturingKenji TanakaBattery gigafactory automation, EV production lines
AI & Digital InfrastructureDon ShenSmart grid, AI-driven battery management
Healthcare & BiotechDr. Sarah MitchellEnergy storage for medical cold chain
Business, Trade & Supply ChainsMarcus LiuEV export tariffs, battery material trade flows

Energy doesn't exist in a silo. When CATL announces a new sodium-ion plant, it ripples into manufacturing (Kenji's beat), trade policy (Marcus's beat), and semiconductor demand (Don's beat). That's why CII's structure matters — we connect the dots across sectors.

This Blog

This Blogger site is where I syndicate selected CII articles in a compact B2B summary format — faster to read, but always linking back to the full in-depth report on the main site. Think of it as my reading list for the energy and EV community.

Every post here:

CII Resources I Use Daily

  • Company Directory — 370+ Chinese companies, structured by sector. I use this to track CATL, BYD, and the entire battery materials chain.
  • Industry Guides & Tools — Evergreen explainers, tariff calculators, exchange rate tools. My go-to reference for energy market context.
  • Editorial Policy — How we source, verify, and correct. The rules I work under.
  • Contact — Send me a tip, correction, or source document.
  • RSS Feed — All CII articles as they publish.

My CII Colleagues

I'm part of a small team. Here's who else you'll see in CII bylines:

Don Shen — Lead Analyst, Technology & AI. AI, semiconductors, cloud computing. SHANCHI & 37co senior engineer, 17 years China tech. Facebook

Kenji Tanaka — Lead Analyst, Industrial & Manufacturing. Manufacturing, supply chain, logistics. Former Toyota production systems, Tokyo/Beijing.X

Dr. Sarah Mitchell — Lead Analyst, Healthcare & Biotech. PhD Life Sciences, former McKinsey healthcare.

Marcus Liu — Lead Analyst, Trade & Economics. Former Goldman Sachs Asia, cross-border expert.

Weber Noah — Data & Research Associate. Former Reuters data team. LinkedIn

Who CII serves: Industry & technology professionals · Investors & market researchers · Manufacturers, suppliers & sourcing teams · Policy, trade & supply-chain analysts · Readers tracking China's role in global industry.

Connect with CII:

🌐 Website  |  🐦 X / Twitter  |  💼 LinkedIn  |  📘 Facebook  |  📡 RSS Feed

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

China EV Sales Surge 45% in Q2 2026 as Export Markets Expand

China's electric vehicle sales surged 45% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, driven by strong export demand and domestic policy support, according to new industry data released Friday. Total EV deliveries reached 3.2 million units in Q2, with BYD maintaining its market leadership at 42% share. Export volumes to Europe and Southeast Asia grew 78% and 112% respectively. The growth comes as China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology extended EV purchase tax exemptions through end of 2027, providing continued momentum for the world's largest auto market.
Post a Comment
Read more

Xiong’an’s Zero-Carbon Park: A Blueprint for Green Industry

Originally published at China Industry Intel . Read the complete report. Xiong'an's Zero-Carbon Park: A Scalable Blueprint for China's Industrial Decarbonization China’s Xiong’an New Area has unveiled a fully operational zero-carbon industrial park that integrates solar generation (50 GWh/year), green hydrogen storage (10 tons), and an AI-driven smart grid to achieve 100% energy self-sufficiency and 40,000 tons of annual CO₂ reduction. This state-sponsored demonstration project uses surplus solar power to produce hydrogen via electrolysis, storing it as a carbon-free buffer for industrial processes and reconversion to electricity. The smart grid algorithmically balances generation, storage, and consumption in real time, eliminating waste and ensuring uninterrupted operations. Critically, the modular design and proven technologies are intended to be replicated across China’s 2,000+ industrial parks, potentially cutting national industrial emissions by 8–12% by 2035 if sca...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nanda Optoelectronics: 111x PE on RMB 20M ArF Revenue—Valuation vs Reality

Originally published at China Industry Intel . Read the complete report. Nanda Optoelectronics: 111x PE on RMB 20M ArF Revenue – A Valuation Disconnect in China's Photoresist Race Nanda Optoelectronics (300346.SZ) trades at a staggering 111x P/E and a market cap of RMB 55.4 billion, yet its 2025 ArF photoresist revenue barely exceeded RMB 20 million. The company’s current capacity stands at just 50 tons per year, with no announced plans for a 500-ton expansion line. This stark gap between valuation and operational reality underscores a broader theme in China’s semiconductor material sector: the domestic substitution narrative has outpaced actual commercial execution. While the strategic imperative to localize advanced photoresists is real, technical barriers—customer qualification cycles of 2–3+ years, heavy reliance on Japanese raw material suppliers, and intense domestic competition—create a multi-year, high-risk path to material revenue. Investors are pricing in dominance bef...
Post a Comment
Read more