The Chinese manufacturing giant Catl, the largest battery supplier for electric cars in the world, said Monday that he had made technological advances that would allow him to produce batteries that are cheaper, lighter, faster to recharge and more cold resistant, while providing a greater driving range.
Most of the changes, which are a couple of years of being widely available in new cars, could make electric cars more competitive in price and performance with gasoline models.
Catl, its full name is the contemporary technology company Amperex Ltd., produces a third of the world’s electric car batteries and supplies 16 of the world’s largest car manufacturers, including General Motors and the Shanghai Tesla factory. Its main rivals for the global market are Byd in Shenzhen, China, which manufactures approximately one sixth of the EV batteries of the world, almost completely for their own cars, and manufacturers of South Korean and Japanese batteries.
Catl executives spoke at a press conference before Shanghai’s auto show, which begins on Wednesday. The choreographed event evoked the launch of a new car model.
The batteries represent at least one third of the cost of an electric car, which makes Catl a critical player in the EV supply chain in China and beyond. Many automobile manufacturers have been observing nervously if Catl one day will try to establish their own car brand that could eclipse their own models.
Catl’s biggest surprise was an announcement about auxiliary batteries for electric cars. The batteries would share space at the bottom of cars, where now there is only one large battery.
The auxiliary battery would be the first commercially available electric vehicle battery that would not use graphite as one of its posts, Catl said.
The elimination of expensive graphite will eventually cause the batteries to be cheaper, after some initial costs, and will allow 60 percent more electricity to be exported in each cubic inch of the battery, said Gao Huan, director of Catl technology for electric cars in China. Additional energy density means that car driving range may be larger, or the general battery size can be reduced, leaving more space for the car passenger compartment.
The second battery would also provide a backup in case one has problems. That has become more important as autonomous characteristics, which require uninterrupted electricity, become more common.
Ouyang Chuye, co -president of Research and Development in Catl, said that auxiliary batteries without graphite would be available in cars in two or three years and possibly before. He refused to say what car manufacturers could be the first to use them.
But taking out the graphite has an inconvenience, so Catl will eliminate it only for auxiliary batteries. Batteries without graphite are recharged more slowly, and they cannot be recharged as many times as conventional EV batteries before they need to be replaced.
Auxiliary batteries are intended to be used less frequently, in longer units after the main battery is exhausted.
Catl, which is headquarters in NODE, China, also said that it had progressed more in the speed of loading the main batteries. The company said its new system would allow an electric vehicle to load enough in five minutes to drive 520 kilometers, or 320 miles.
Byd and Huawei, a Chinese electronics giant who plays an increasing role in the manufacture of auto parts, has also announced five -minute loading systems, known as supercharging.
Catl also said that he would start selling sodium ion batteries, which can retain more than 90 percent of its load even at a temperature of 40 degrees below zero, for use in cars and trucks with internal combustion motors. Sodium batteries could be used by car manufacturers to replace conventional lead-acid batteries, which die in a very cold climate and in some electric cars.
Mr. Ouyang said that the electricity of these sodium batteries would be compatible with the electrical systems of existing cars with gasoline, but that the new batteries could not fit in the same space.
Catl said that his first client for sodium ion batteries would be freight trucks from First Auto Works, a car manufacturer in Changchun, at the northeast end of China, where temperatures frequently fall well below zero. The development of sodium ion batteries has been a priority for the Chinese electric car industry because the northern provinces of the country, which border Mongolia and Siberia in Russia, have very cold temperatures in winter.
In the interviews last autumn, car owners in Urumqi, in the northwest end of China, drivers said the cold weather was the reason why they would not consider buying electric cars.
Battery manufacturers have been working on sodium ion batteries for many years, but the United States can have a long -term advantage in technology. Almost all the natural geological deposits of the world of soda ashes, the raw material for sodium ion batteries, are found in the southwest of Wyoming.
Catl showed a video of his sodium ion batteries that are subjected to stress tests, such as being perforated with a nail drill or food or even cut in half with a power saw, without burning fire or exploiting. Only five years ago, Catl had argued that nail tests were not realistic and that the batteries should not be expected to resist them.
Li Contributed research.
