Chinese battery giant CATL says it can solve the biggest shortcomings in electric vehicle batteries

When CATL speaks, we listen. After all, that company controls more than a third of the global market for electric vehicle batteries. The Chinese giant claims to have developed new materials for lithium-ion batteries that should significantly improve charging times in cold weather.

In the news: CATL says it has developed new electrolyte materials that can significantly improve battery charging efficiency in cold weather.

• According to Lu Kai, chief scientist at CATL, the new electrolyte can provide 50 percent higher charge efficiencies at -20 degrees and 43 percent at normal temperatures. That writes the press agency Reuters.
• We know cold weather and batteries don’t go well together. The cold slows down the reactions in the electrolyte solution. This solution is necessary to transfer the charge between the two electrodes of the battery. In cold weather, more capacity is also needed to heat the electric vehicle, which inevitably reduces range.
• CATL is said to be able to mass-produce this type of battery, with a range of 400 kilometers on a 10-minute charge, as early as this year. The long-term goal is a 5-7 minute charge time.

Also this: fight for Solid battery (solid state).

• This type of battery is said to provide more power and a longer range. Toyota recently announced a breakthrough that will allow it to produce batteries with a range of up to 1,200 kilometers for the general public from 2027, while cutting costs and weight in half. All this with a charging time of just 10 minutes.
• But CATL is skeptical. Wu doesn’t think the technology is ready for mass production. “What I’m sure of is that no one in the industry is capable of mass-producing solid-state batteries at present,” he said at a forum in Shanghai.
• “They claim they can cut costs in half, which is very exciting and would be very disruptive, but I wonder on what basis they are [hun technologie] Compare, ”added the specialist.

(M/ash)