Chinese Manufacturer CATL Claims Breakthrough in Battery Technology

What Happened?

Chinese manufacturer CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Company), the world’s largest supplier of batteries for electric cars, announced Monday that it has made significant technological progress in creating a new class of batteries. They will be less costly, lighter, quicker to recharge, more resistant to cold, and will provide longer driving range than any current batteries used for electric vehicles. 

A CATL spokesman claimed the new batteries will allow an electric vehicle to charge enough for 320 miles of range, or 520 kilometers, with just five minutes of charging. 

Why it Matters

CATL is already a global heavyweight in the electric vehicle battery market, producing one third of all EV batteries and supplying companies like Tesla and General Motors. U.S.-traded shares of CATL rose 2.6% Monday morning following the announcement.

CATL showcased the new battery system during a news conference in Shanghai on Monday. According to Kevin Ryan of Quartz, the new battery system uses auxiliary batteries found in the car’s underbody instead of one big battery like most electric vehicles. That battery uses less graphite, which is a major driver of car batteries’ high costs. Overall batteries make up nearly one-third of the cost of electric vehicles.

At the Shanghai press conference on Monday, Ouyang Chuying, CATL’s co-president for research and development, said the new battery technology would be available in two to three years and possibly sooner. Though he did not comment on who might be the first to receive the new batteries.

CATL is not the only company in China claiming to have made progress in developing better batteries for electric vehicles. Rival BYD announced in March, it had developed a novel charging system that can give cars 292 miles (470 kilometers) of range in five minutes. The company announced at the time that it planned to set up 4,000 charging stations, though it did not say when those new stations would be in place.

Long charging times and high battery costs have been two of the leading reasons why some consumers have been reluctant to purchase electric vehicles. If battery manufacturers can get the charge-time down to the same amount of time it takes to refill a gas-powered vehicle, it could lead to a surge in electric vehicle sales. If manufacturers can also decrease the cost of batteries for electric vehicles at the same time, it would be a win-win for the industry and consumers.

How it Affects You

If the claims made by CATL and BYD are valid, then a new and better class of electric vehicles will be available to consumers within the next few years. A key component of the new designs is that they use a battery system which contains a back-up, while current electric vehicles only have one battery to provide power.