I saw this. It actually means that CATL will offer a discount to certain Chinese EV makers like Nio and will bear 50 % or more of the lithium costs, depending on how the lithium prices will develop over the next 3 years, in order to bind the EV makers closer to CATL. They have to agree to buy at least 80 % or more of their battery cells from CATL. The discount on the battery cell level will be much less, maybe 8 - 10 % or so. In effect the EV makers agreeing to the deal will get a discount somewhere around this range on their battery cell purchaes and will be able to offer their EVs at lower prices boosting market demand. You could say that the participants see this as a win-win-situation, but maybe the Chinese government has influenced CATL to offer these discounts in order to give these EV makers a competitive advantage. But it could also be intended to put pressure on other battery makers. In the end it should be positive for lithium demand, because CATL will bear more of the lithium costs and certain EV models will most likely become cheaper for customers. It helps smaller Chinese EV makers that currenty have significantly less sales than Tesla, which would not agree to buy 80 % of their battery cells only from CATL. And for CATL this kind of deal might have been to big and too costly anyway.
