Charged EVs | CATL launches fast-charging LFP battery, to start out mass manufacturing this yr

CATL, the world’s largest EV battery maker and a significant Tesla provider, has launched a brand new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that it claims can add 248 miles of vary in 10 minutes of charging.

The corporate says its new Shenxing battery (named for an historical Chinese language phrase having to do with pace) will ship as much as 434 miles of vary on China’s CLTC cycle. It helps 4C quick charging, which implies it could actually cost at a present of 12 A above the diffusion limiting present.

CATL says the brand new battery owes its pace to a number of in-house applied sciences, together with accelerated extraction of lithium ions, an improved lithium-ion intercalation fee by quick ion ring expertise, a multi-gradient layered electrode design, a brand new superconducting electrolyte method, and an ultra-thin and safer separator.

Automakers are more and more turning to LFP cells, which are usually cheaper and extra sturdy than cells utilizing different chemistries. Historically, the drawbacks of LFP are decrease power density and poorer cold-weather efficiency, however CATL says these are now not points. In line with the corporate, the Shenxing LFP battery can obtain quick charging even in temperatures as little as 14° F.

CATL says the Shenxing battery is anticipated to enter mass manufacturing in China by the tip of this yr, and the primary EVs geared up with the brand new battery will launch within the first quarter of 2024.

“We hope that, by steady efforts to enhance expertise and scale back prices, Shenxing will grow to be a normal product accessible for each electrical automobile,” mentioned Gao Han, Chief Expertise Officer of CATL’s E-Automobile Enterprise.

Sources: CATL, Reuters, InsideEVs