Wednesday, August 16, 2023

China's CATL launches fast charging LFP battery, mass production expected by year-end

Reuters
Wed, August 16, 2023


BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese battery giant CATL on Wednesday launched a fast charging lithium iron phosphate or LFP battery capable of running 400 km (248 miles) on a 10-minute charge.

Mass production of the new battery called Shenxing is expected by the end of the year while electric vehicles equipped with Shenxing batteries will hit the market in the first quarter of 2024,Gao Han, chief technology officer of CATL's E-Car Business, told an online briefing.

"We hope through continuous efforts to improve technology and reduce costs, Shenxing will become a standard product available for every electric vehicle," Gao said.

CATL has scrambled to maintain its industry leadership while facing challenges of weakening demand and pressure to cut costs from EV makers amid a price war and a slowdown in auto sales this year.

CATL, which counts Tesla as its biggest client, has been losing market share to BYD, a major automaker that powers all its EVs with its own batteries.


Automakers such as Chongqing Changan Automobile and Guangzhou Automobile Group also sourced more batteries from smaller suppliers to reduce costs.

(Reporting by Zhang Yan, Qiaoyi Li and Brenda Goh; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Tomasz Janowski)

Tesla supplier CATL unveils battery that can add up to 400km of range in 10 minutes

Rita Liao
Wed, August 16, 2023

Image Credits: CATL


CATL, the Chinese battery giant and a major supplier to Tesla, has unveiled its latest product that aims to solve electric vehicles' charging and range limitations. The battery, dubbed Shenxing or "god-like movement", is able to refuel up to 400 kilometers (250 miles) of range in 10 minutes, Gao Han, chief technology officer of CATL's e-car division, said at a launch briefing on Wednesday.

That means vehicles powered by Shenxing can drive from New York to Boston (about 215 miles) after just 10 minutes of fast charging. Mass production of the battery is expected to be underway by the end of 2023, with shipping to begin in 2024.

Shenxing claims to be "the world's first 4C superfast charging LFP battery. "LFP stands for lithium iron phosphate, a type of battery chemistry that Tesla widely adapted in 2021 for its shorter-range cars in place of nickel-cobalt-aluminum.

China is a big proponent of LFP, a technology spearheaded by its renewable energy darling CATL, which topped the global EV battery market with a 35% share in Q1, according to research firm SNE. This type of battery is known for its cheap prices and chemical stability, though it has a lower energy density than other battery chemistries, which is a drag on EVs' range.

CATL's extraordinary growth has been buoyed by an EV boom in China over the last few years. But the EV industry is decelerating as government subsidies shrink and consumption contracts amid a post-COVID economic downturn. Meanwhile, the Fujian-based battery manufacturers face heated competition from BYD, the Chinese EV giant that also makes its own battery. In Q1, BYD trailed CATL in second place with a 16.2% share of the global EV battery market.


Congress probes Ford’s big battery deal with China’s CATL

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