Dear SMM Users and Partners,
In 2025, the energy storage industry experienced rapid development and cyclical adjustments. As a professional data service provider within the industry, SMM has always adhered to rigorous and objective data production standards, striving to deliver high-quality decision-making references for the market. Given the high timeliness of monthly data, the preliminary data released at the beginning of each month primarily relies on immediate feedback available at that time. As the year-end approaches, to ensure the accuracy and historical reference value of the annual database, the SMM research team recently initiated a routine review of the full-year 2025 data. We have consistently adopted the "factory shipment" as the statistical standard. However, during high-frequency monthly research, out of prudence in data release, we conservatively handled some shipment data that had not yet undergone complete cross-verification at the time of reporting. Through in-depth one-on-one retrospective confirmation with core sample companies at the year-end, we have verified the effective shipment volumes resulting from reporting delays or information synchronization cycles and have adjusted these in this calibration to ensure the annual data fully reflects the actual production and sales scale.
Based on this closed-loop verification across the entire industry chain, we have conducted a refined calibration of the 2025 historical database.
Summary of Updates:
1. This adjustment includes the following data points: "SMM Energy Storage Cell Monthly Shipment Volume," "SMM: China Energy Storage Cell Shipment Volume by Application Scenario: Residential & Commercial & Industrial: Monthly," and "SMM: China Energy Storage Cell Shipment Volume by Application Scenario: Grid-Side Energy Storage Cells: Monthly."
2. Renaming of data points:
- "SMM: China Energy Storage Cell Shipment Volume by Application Scenario: Residential & Commercial & Industrial: Monthly" has been renamed to "SMM: China-made Energy Storage Cell Shipment Volume by Application Scenario: Residential & Commercial & Industrial: Monthly."
- "SMM: China Energy Storage Cell Shipment Volume by Application Scenario: Grid-Side Energy Storage Cells: Monthly" has been renamed to "SMM: ESS Battery Cell Shipments by Application Scenario Made in China: Residential and Commercial & Industrial: Monthly"
3. Nature of data calibration: This adjustment is part of the annual routine precision alignment, aimed at eliminating noise from immediate monthly statistics.
4. Scope of updates: Involves adjustments to historical values for certain months in 2025, while maintaining consistency in the overall market trend curve.
5. Clarification on methodology optimization: As large-scale storage cells are increasingly adopted in commercial, industrial, and residential applications, we have taken this annual review as an opportunity to optimize the consistency of the statistical execution standards for the "Residential & Commercial & Industrial" scenario data. This ensures the data series purely and consistently reflects the terminal market structure over the long term. Post-optimization, this data point will strictly and entirely be categorized based on terminal application scenarios, ensuring its statistical scope aligns precisely with the indicator name. This addresses statistical deviations that arose earlier due to the strong correlation between technological pathways and application scenarios.
6. Usage recommendation: The SMM database has been synchronized and updated as of now. To ensure the accuracy of your annual summaries and forecasts for the coming year, we recommend referencing the latest version currently displayed in the system when citing 2025 historical data.
Thank you for your continued trust and support in SMM data. We will further optimize our data verification mechanisms to provide you with more precise industry insights.
SMM New Energy Research Team
February 2026