Tesla Inc may feel a little cross with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), the top battery maker for EVs in the world. The Chinese company has been supplying most of the batteries for the EVs produced at Tesla's Gigafactory Shanghai. CATL has a tie-up till 2025 with Tesla to supply battery to Tesla.
But Korean battery companies like LG Energy Solutions and Samsung SDI are both investing considerable amount in building an assembly line for the manufacture of 4680 cylindrical battery that is unique to Tesla. And Tesla itself has plans to halve the costs of the most expensive part of an EV by producing its own batteries.
Amidst all this catena of action, CATL has unveiled an electric-car battery it said has a range of over 1,000 kilometers on a single charge and is 13% more powerful than one planned by Tesla.
Named Qilin (a legendary creature in Chinese mythology), the battery sets, as per the company's claim, a new record for volume-based usage efficiency at over 72% per cent. That is, 72% of the ready-to-install battery pack is filled with cells. When CATL introduced the first generation of cell-to-pack (CTP) tech in 2019, the volume usage efficiency was 50%. The new battery has an energy density of up to 255 Wh/kg, capable of delivering a range of over 1,000 km in a jiffy.
"With the same chemical system and the same pack size, it can deliver 13% more power than the 4680 battery, accomplishing an all-round improvement in range, fast-charging, safety, service life, efficiency and low-temperature performance," the company said.
What CATL's new battery is all about
CATL said that in the CTP 3.0 battery, the internal crossbeam, liquid-cooling plate and thermal pad have been integrated into a multifunctional elastic interlayer. "The integrated energy unit, which is composed of the cell and the multifunctional elastic interlayer, builds a more stable load bearing structure perpendicular to the driving direction, thus enhancing the shock and vibration resistance of the battery pack."
The battery's bottom sharing design allows the smart arrangement of various components including structural protection, high-voltage connection and a protective vent for thermal runaway, further increasing the battery capacity by 6%.
CATL claimed that the new battery has a 'disruptive water cooling design', in which liquid cooling functional parts are placed between adjacent cells. This increases the heat transfer area by four times, cuts thermal control time in half, and supports a hot start in 5 minutes and fast charging in 10 minutes. 'It enables the cell to cool down rapidly in extreme circumstances, effectively preventing abnormal thermal conduction among cells.'
The CTP 3.0 batteries, or Qilin, are expected to hit the market in 2023.
