Locked Out of the U.S., Chinese Battery Makers Are Rewriting How They Enter Europe

Chinese battery storage exporters just had their best half-year on record — and almost none of it came from the market that used to matter most.

In the first half of 2026, Chinese energy storage companies signed overseas orders totaling roughly 298 GWh, up about 83% year-over-year. Europe alone accounted for more than a third of that volume, around 120 GWh. North America, by contrast, fell to roughly 5 GWh, after a U.S. executive order restricting foreign-made power equipment in large grid-connected systems effectively closed the door on direct Chinese exports.

What happened to Chinese battery exports to the U.S.?

The order didn’t ban Chinese components outright the way a tariff would, but it made foreign-made equipment in large power systems a compliance risk few U.S. developers were willing to take on. For Chinese vendors, the practical effect was the same as a ban: order volume to North America collapsed from a meaningful share to a rounding error.

Where did that volume go instead?

Largely to Europe. But the shift isn’t just geographic — it’s structural. Rather than replacing lost U.S. orders with more direct exports elsewhere, several major Chinese vendors are opening joint ventures with European partners, setting up local assembly and service operations, and licensing their technology to European-based manufacturers instead of shipping finished systems.

How are Chinese vendors changing how they enter Europe?

A joint venture or a locally licensed product doesn’t show up in export statistics the same way a direct shipment does. It can also qualify for treatment as a local or regional supplier under procurement rules that favor domestic content — treatment a straight import would not get. For a vendor facing scrutiny over Chinese-origin equipment, that distinction is the difference between winning a tender and being disqualified from one.

What this means for competitor analysis

A ranking built on export volume alone will miss this. Two vendors can ship an identical amount of hardware into Europe and land in completely different competitive positions — one as a foreign import, one as a qualified local partner — depending entirely on the corporate structure behind the shipment. If you’re mapping who you’re actually competing against in a European tender, the entry structure matters as much as the nameplate capacity.

This is the kind of distinction the Competitor, Customer & Partner Intelligence Toolkit is built to track — not just who’s shipping into a market, but which of them actually qualify as a partner, and which one still counts as an import.

The compliance mechanics behind this shift trace back to a specific rule change: how FEOC rules are reshaping who can actually claim U.S. storage tax credits.