The world’s largest manufacturer of batteries for electric cars, CATL, apparently wants to bring two new types of battery this year: a super-light one with extreme energy density and so-called sodium-ion batteries, which store relatively little energy but do without lithium and are particularly cheap are.
The so-called “Condensed Matter Battery” should be able to hold 500 Wh of energy per kilogram of weight at cell level – about twice as much as current battery types. Thanks to the favorable ratio of weight to capacity, the technology should not only be suitable for electric cars, but also for electric airplanes. The extreme energy density is made possible by condensed, highly conductive biomimetic electrolytes. In addition, the group speaks of new anode and cathode materials, but does not elaborate. Mass production of the e-car version of the battery is scheduled to start this year, with the aircraft version coming later. There is no information on the costs of such batteries, but they are likely to be higher than those of conventional batteries. CATL is already going into series use with sodium-ion batteries. The first vehicle will probably be the iCar 03, a compact SUV from the Chinese brand Chery. However, the new technology will probably only make up part of the energy storage system, the rest consists of lithium-ion cells. The energy density is simply too low. BYD is said to be taking a similar approach have low energy density. From the second half of the year, the Seagull should also get the hybrid form of drive batteries just described. BYD itself is one of the largest battery manufacturers in the world.
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