Shanghai (ZXZC)- China's power battery maker CATL saw its revenue in the first quarter of the year surged 168.93% year on year to RMB9.982 billion, according to a quarterly report released by the company.

Its Q1 net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company reached RMB1.047 billion, soaring 153.35% over a year ago. Excluding the non-recurring gains and losses, the quarterly net profit was RMB915.7 million, still skyrocketing 240.32% from the year-ago period.

CATL attributed its revenue and profit growth to two main reasons: (1) the fast-growing new energy vehicle (NEV) industry boosted the market demands over power batteries; (2) company's strengthened market exploration made its battery capacity gradually released, thus improving the outputs and sales accordingly.

Meanwhile, expenses of sales and management for the first three months shot up 171.53% and 80.17% from a year earlier due to the increase of logistics, after-sales service and administration costs along with the sales volume growth and the business expansion.

CATL announced on April 25 that it has signed a contract with the state-owned carmaker FAW Group to jointly set up a company focusing on production and sales of power batteries. In accordance with the agreement, the joint venture, dubbed CATL-FAW Power Battery Co.,Ltd (CATL-FAW), plans to start a power battery manufacturing program in Xiapu County, Ningde, Fujian. Its business scope covers the development, production and sales of lithium ion battery, power battery, energy storage battery with ultra-large capacity and battery system as well as relevant after-sale services and technology consultation.

Moreover, CATL on February 25 said that it has inked a five-year agreement to deepen the cooperation with BAIC BJEV and Beijing Pride Power System Technology Limited (Pride Power). CATL and Pride Power will provide BAIC BJEV with power battery systems in the next five years. Besides, Pride Power should offer the products to the EV maker at a bargain price and CATL need to supply an agreed monthly volume of battery, while BAIC BJEV is supposed to give CATL and Pride Power some procurement shares no less than a certain percentage of its annual battery procurement volume in 2019. In the step-up collaboration, CATL and BAIC BJEV will jointly build a R&D team to work on developing new types of power battery.