Chinese battery maker CATL has developed a “tall” battery design for the US pick-up truck market despite trade barriers to entering the country, reported the Financial Times.

The newspaper, citing CATL international business unit CTO Zhu Lingbo, reported that US carmakers have already tested the batteries, although the companies were not identified.

According to the report, Zhu said CATL could license the technology to companies in the US for local production, in a model like existing arrangements with Ford and Tesla for EV battery manufacturing in the country.

Speaking at CATL’s headquarters in Ningde, Zhu said the US remained a market with potential for “huge business” for the company “even with this kind of very intense geopolitics”.

The remarks were made before a planned summit in Washington involving US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as an earlier scheduled meeting in New York between US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his Chinese counterpart He Lifeng.

The Pentagon, US Department of Defence headquarters, named CATL last year as a company with alleged military ties, a claim the firm has denied.

Chinese battery and EV manufacturers are continuing to face tariffs, localisation requirements and possible bans from Washington on national security grounds, which has made exports to or investment in the US largely impractical.

Last week, organisations representing the US automotive industry asked Trump to maintain measures aimed at preventing Chinese carmakers and their supply chains from entering the US market.

That followed Trump’s statement that he would “be OK” with China establishing car plants in the US if American workers were employed.

In April, CATL introduced a new fast-charging EV battery.

The company launched the third-generation “Shenxing” lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery, which it said can charge from 10% to 98% in six minutes and 27 seconds under moderate temperatures.