Chinese battery giant CATL has unveiled a new battery, claiming that it can eventually power civilian electric airplanes. That could be a game changer. But for now, CATL has offered precious few technical details about the battery.
Analysts are currently in a close watch trying to figure out what, exactly, CATL’s new technology has in store for industry—and whether it can propel the battery company to higher heights, further entrenching China’s dominant position in the global battery supply chain
What is CATL’s new battery make up?“What do we not know yet is the cost of these cells, if any critical materials are used, how developed the supply chains for these components are, what the cycle life of the cells are” – James Frith, lithium battery expert and a principal at the venture capital firm Volta Energy Technologies.
CATL describes its cutting-edge product as a condensed battery. That means it’s a semi-solid state battery, an emerging technology with the potential to address issues including the stability of chemical interactions and the scale of manufacturing that have held back the mass commercialization of solid state batteries.
According to Wood Mackenzie Consultancy, Semi-solid state batteries on the other hand, combine both solid and liquid electrolyte components to improve the electrolyte’s contact area with electrodes and speed up production processes.
According to CATL, its latest battery features new materials for:
* the anode (the battery’s negative electrode)
* an ultra-high energy density cathode (the positive electrode)
* a condensed electrolyte (a conductive solution that move charge between the anode and cathode)—though it’s unclear what exactly “condensed” means in CATL’s context
When will the new CATL battery hit the market?
CATL claims it can “achieve mass production of [the] condensed battery in a short period of time.” CATL’s chief scientist speaking to reporters at the Shanghai Auto Show that large-scale manufacturing can start later this year.
(Quartz news)