Electric Vehicle Batteries

The future of Electric Vehicle batteries

With a huge shift to electric vehicles and general electrification, there has also been a massive increase in demand for high quality batteries for both mobility and stationary storage. While most people are aware of manufacturers like Tesla and LG, the largest battery manufacturer, and arguably the one with the most advanced battery technologies, is Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (commonly known as CATL)—the largest battery manufacturer by far.

CATL not only supply many of the world's EV makers—including Tesla—they are also developing the most advanced batteries available.

Recent advances include their sodium ion battery which completely eliminates the need for lithium. These batteries are set to appear in EVs this year, with CATL signing a new partnership with EV maker Chery to supply sodium ion batteries with gravimetric energy density of over 200Wh/ kg—previously only achieved in the realm of lithium. 

CATL recently announced their “condensed battery”, a lithium ion battery with an energy density of up to a massive 500Wh/kg. This level of energy density is considered to be the holy grail for batteries to become viable for passenger aircraft, and CATL is aiming these cells at just that market. CATL states that these cells “integrate a range of innovative technologies, including ultra-high energy density cathode materials, innovative anode materials, separators, and manufacturing processes, offering excellent charge and discharge performance as well as good safety performance.”

Production of the condensed battery is expected to start before the end of 2023, so this is no pie-in-the-sky fantasy.

And if those two developments were not enough, the latest announcement from CATL as of writing is their new lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) cells can be charged at up to a 4C rate, or to 80% SOC in 10 minutes at normal temperatures or 0-80% in 30 minutes in temperatures as low as -10°C.

While LFP cells are cheaper and safer than other lithium ion chemistries, they are usually also slower to charge, but CATL has addressed this with their new “Shenxing” LFP cells which are designed to allow super fast charging for EVs without the need to use common chemistries such as NMC or NCA.

Source:  Renew Magazine