Only as delivery approached did Ideal MEGA buyers learn that "CATL batteries are gone" and their vehicles could not be delivered as agreed. Owners say sales staff had heavily promoted the CATL battery. Behind the cutoff of CATL battery supply for the Ideal MEGA is the self-developed Lianshan battery, produced in cooperation with Sunwoda.

According to Hongxing Capital Bureau, several prospective owners of the new-generation Ideal MEGA recently reported receiving notices from Ideal Auto that orders locked before 3:00 p.m. on September 7 — originally slated to be equipped with CATL 5C ternary lithium batteries — could not be delivered as agreed and would instead use Ideal's self-developed "Lianshan" battery, because "CATL batteries are gone."

For this batch of affected orders, Ideal offered MEGA owners two options. Those who still wish to take delivery will have their vehicle switched to Ideal's self-developed Lianshan battery and receive benefits worth 3,500 yuan as compensation. Those who choose to abandon the order and return the vehicle will be handled under the contract-breach process: the original 5,000 yuan deposit will be refunded, plus an additional 5,000 yuan.

Many owners find this arrangement hard to accept, feeling that the official notice came too late. When they placed their orders, the CATL battery was itself a key factor in their decision to buy. Ideal customer service explained externally that the company had been doing its utmost to secure more CATL battery quota, but a supply gap ultimately emerged.

After the incident fermented, some prospective owners also speculated whether there had been a rift in the cooperative relationship between Ideal and CATL.

As for why the Ideal MEGA's battery configuration was changed at short notice, Ideal has so far not responded to Xin Shi Research Institute.

Externally, Ideal Auto did not directly address questions related to the supply cutoff, citing only President Ma Donghui's remarks at the PowerDay event: that Ideal will continue to deepen self-development of core technologies while maintaining deep cooperation with high-quality partners.

Data from the Passenger Car Association also indirectly reflects changes in the supply chain. In August, Ideal was no longer among CATL's top five customers, but instead became Sunwoda's largest customer, accounting for 39% of Sunwoda's overall installed capacity. In September, Ideal injected 2.65 billion yuan into Sunwoda, becoming the second-largest shareholder of the battery company — and Sunwoda is also one of the cell OEM partners for Ideal's Lianshan battery. At this stage, Ideal still uses CATL batteries only in some L9 models and the i8 four-wheel-drive high-performance version.

In fact, as early as September 7, Ideal had issued a related adjustment notice: because orders for the new-generation Ideal MEGA were hotter than expected, CATL's supporting battery reserves would soon be exhausted, and new cars locked after 3 p.m. that day would no longer be equipped with CATL batteries and would uniformly switch to Ideal's self-developed batteries.

However, many owners who locked their orders before that time said they received no SMS or app pop-up reminder at the time, nor did sales staff proactively inform them of the risk. It was not until late October, near delivery, that they learned the order configuration had changed. Many owners admitted that a large part of their determination to place the order stemmed from optimism about CATL's 5C ultra-fast-charging Kirin battery, and some sales pitches also used this battery as an important selling point to drive orders. Only near delivery were they told it could not be fulfilled — wasting their waiting time for nothing.

Some owners also mentioned that if they choose to cancel the order and accept compensation, they would have to queue again to buy a MEGA later, and given current production capacity, taking delivery this year would basically be very difficult.

Some in the market also recalled past episodes. Previously, when the Ideal i6 was launched and orders were booming, sales failed to rise further because CATL's production capacity could not keep up and battery supply was limited. At that time, there was already discussion about automakers being constrained by battery suppliers. However, industry views hold that automakers' supplier layout and technology-route planning are not decisions made in a fit of pique; supply chain plans for core components are often long-term strategies finalized well in advance.

Ideal has been deeply tied to CATL since the Ideal ONE in 2020. Cumulative deliveries of Ideal models equipped with CATL batteries are approaching one million units, and the two companies announced comprehensive strategic cooperation last September. Now this batch of MEGA orders is centrally switching to self-developed batteries, which reflects both supply chain gaming and the implementation of Ideal's self-development route.

In the view of many owners, Ideal is the breaching party in this incident, and the two solutions each have trade-offs: those who already recognize Ideal's complete vehicle products and do not want to continue a long queue can accept the self-developed Lianshan battery and take delivery on schedule; users whose core purchase demand is CATL cells can choose to cancel the order and receive the deposit and compensation.

Until now, neither Ideal nor CATL has publicly explained whether this gap is a production capacity quota issue or an adjustment in the two sides' cooperative supply strategy. The true reason still awaits further official explanation.

Many netizens online have also discussed this matter. Some believe that battery manufacturers' high profits can easily create conflicts with automakers, and disagreements are unavoidable under long-term gaming. Some netizens lamented that CATL batteries cost more, and 5,000 yuan in compensation can hardly make up for consumers' original expectation gap. Others said that if one insists on CATL batteries, one might as well directly consider other models.