CATL and Blue Vector sign cooperation agreements for a Skyla V30 battery

CATL said on a page dated November 2, 2026 that it and Blue Vector signed a strategic cooperation agreement and a product cooperation agreement at the same time. The statement says CATL will custom-develop aviation power batteries for Blue Vector's SKYLA V30 aircraft, that Blue Vector selected CATL as its exclusive battery partner, and that the two sides will jointly advance innovation and application of electric aviation technology. Blue Vector's note, also dated November 2, 2026, says 蓝色向量智能科技（杭州）有限公司 formally signed those two agreements with 宁德时代新能源科技股份有限公司 and reached what it calls all-round cooperation. It says CATL will custom-develop aviation power battery products for the Skyla V30. It does not use the word exclusive. CnEVPost reported the same day that the battery maker said this in a statement on Monday, and that the statement did not disclose the deal's value, battery specifications or a supply timeline. The CATL page and the Blue Vector page do not state those either. CnEVPost gives CATL's Hong Kong listing code as 3750 and describes Skyla Aviation as Blue Vector's eVTOL business. The agreements are not an aircraft order.

CATL's statement says Blue Vector's founder and chief executive, 吴穹, and CATL's chairman and chief executive, 曾毓群, were among those who witnessed the ceremony, and that Blue Vector's co-founder and chief operating officer, 张栩, and CATL's aviation-business executive president, 胡文斌, signed for the two companies. Blue Vector's note names the same two witnesses and the same two signatories. It does not say "among others."

Blue Vector says that, for an eVTOL, the battery system affects aircraft weight, range, flight performance and operational safety, and that the technology still has to go through continued examination in systems integration, engineering validation and airworthiness review. It says the SKYLA V30 is a pure-electric tiltrotor eVTOL, and that work continues on aircraft design, power-system integration, flight control and what it calls a software-defined aircraft architecture. Besides the V30, it says the two companies will also cooperate on technology innovation, research coordination, standards, market development and scenario operations. "Will also cooperate" and "all-round cooperation" are the note's words. They are not a price, a battery specification or a delivery date.

The aircraft the notes describe

Blue Vector's August 31, 2026 note calls the SKYLA V30 a 6-seat, 2.5-tonne-class pure-electric tiltrotor passenger aircraft. "2.5-tonne-class" is the note's wording. It is not a measured weight on this page. CnEVPost describes the aircraft as a 6-seat, all-electric tiltrotor designed for intercity passenger travel. The intercity purpose is CnEVPost's description.

The August 31 note says the first full-scale technology demonstrator, A/C01, rolled out that morning at the final assembly plant of Harbin Hafei Aviation Industry. It says rollout means the project has moved from design into full-aircraft engineering validation, and that A/C01 is an engineering prototype that still has to be examined in ground testing, systems integration and tilt-transition flight tests. Those tests are described as what comes next. The note does not say they have been done. It does not say A/C01 has flown.

The same note says a subscale demonstrator completed a full tilt-transition test flight in December 2025: vertical takeoff, transition, cruise and landing. That sentence is about the subscale vehicle. It is not a flight of A/C01. The note also says Hafei handed over a certificate marking completion of airframe manufacture. It calls that a manufacturing handover into integration. It does not call it an airworthiness certificate or a type certificate.

The note says the program set a civil-aviation-level safety target from the start. A target is not a type certificate.

Pre-sales orders are not this agreement

Blue Vector's September 26, 2026 note says that during the fifth Global Digital Trade Expo in Hangzhou it signed pre-sales orders for 60 SKYLA V30 aircraft, including 30 with Singapore aviation operator Moon Aero, which it calls the first overseas pre-sales orders. It also says it signed a strategic cooperation and a pre-sales order with 杭州月球航空科技有限公司. It does not give that company's number, so this page does not assign the other 30. It says that since a global debut in July 2026, cumulative pre-sales orders had exceeded 100. It uses 预售订单, pre-sales orders. It does not call them firm purchase contracts. It says the company will continue engineering validation and airworthiness certification work. That is a plan. It is not a certificate.

The note dates the expo's opening to September 23 and says the expo ran from September 23 to 27. It does not print September 24 as the day the orders were signed. CnEVPost reports that Blue Vector said on September 24 that it had signed the 60 pre-sales orders, including 30 from Moon Aero. This page uses September 26 as the date on Blue Vector's own note, and it attributes September 24 to CnEVPost.

Those pre-sales orders are not the November 2 battery agreements. A pre-sales order is not a firm order.

The photograph

The photograph on this page is the one CATL published with its November 2 statement. The screen behind the group carries the two companies' names and the words for a strategic-cooperation signing ceremony. CATL's page does not name the four people, and this page does not. A wider photograph on Blue Vector's news list for the same item shows 2026/11/02 and 福建·宁德 on the screen. CATL's crop does not include that line. The article text on both pages says 近日, recently, and both pages are dated November 2, 2026. Blue Vector's article text does not name the city. An image address inside Blue Vector's article points at a Feishu file that did not load, so it is not used.

The aircraft image on the Skyla V30 page is the other image CATL published with the statement. CATL does not caption it. CnEVPost calls it an official rendering of the Skyla V30 and credits the image to Blue Vector. It is labelled here as a rendering, not a photograph. It is not a photograph of A/C01.

What is not established

No deal value is stated. No battery chemistry, capacity, weight or other specification is stated. No supply timeline is stated. The agreements are not an order for aircraft, and they are not a firm order. "Exclusive battery partner" is CATL's phrase, which CnEVPost reports. Blue Vector's note does not say exclusive. No flight of the full-scale demonstrator A/C01 is stated. The December 2025 flight is described as a subscale test. No type certificate is stated. Airworthiness review and airworthiness certification are described as work still ahead. The September pre-sales orders are not firm orders, and CnEVPost's September 24 is not the date printed on Blue Vector's own note. The rendering is not evidence that a finished aircraft matches it.

Sources

Facts as reported by the linked sources as of Nov 11, 2026. Company targets are plans, not guarantees. Corrections: see About.