Ningde-China based, Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL), a Tesla supplier, is developing a new type of electric vehicle (EV) battery that contains no nickel or cobalt.
CATL makes nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries and supplies lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries to Tesla. It has partnerships with Japan’s Toyota Motor and Honda Motor and supplies Germany’s Volkswagen AG and Daimler AG.
Nickel and cobalt are key ingredients in the batteries that power EVs. Battery makers from Japan’s Panasonic Corp to South Korea’s LG Chem are trying to lower the use of expensive cobalt in their nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) batteries or nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries.
In the above spirit, CATL is also working on a new battery chemistry that would not require expensive metals like nickel or cobalt and would be substantially different from existing NCA, NCM and LFP batteries.
However, the company did not give details of the makeup or the cost of the planned battery type. They are also developing a separate technology to integrate battery cells directly into an EV’s frame to extend its driving range.
This is a PRbusinesswire Feed; edited by Clean-Future Team