CATL’s Latest Battery Is A Massive Leap In The Right Direction

There is a “winner takes it all” race taking place in the EV world, with several heavy hitters furiously working to achieve victory. You see, the core technology driving EVs forward is battery technology. Batteries are the limiting factor for EVs, as they set how fast they can charge, how far they can go per charge, how cheap they can be built, and even their safety levels and ecological impact. So, if you want to fill the gaping hole in the market for a genuinely affordable and eco-friendly EV for the people, you need insanely good batteries. Whoever can provide these batteries is set to dominate the industry and make billions off the EV movement. I have covered several companies’ attempts at this, such as Tesla’s 4680 and BYD’s Blade Battery, but these batteries aren’t quite there yet, as they all have drawbacks. However, CATL, the world’s biggest battery supplier, just announced their contender, the Shenxing battery, and it seems perfect. So, has CATL just won the EV battery race? Before diving into this battery’s specs, we first have to understand its chemistry. You see, most batteries we use today are lithium-ion batteries, whereas the Shenxing is a LiFePO4 battery, also known as an LFP battery. These batteries both work in a similar way, by shuttling lithium ions between the two ends of the battery to store and discharge energy, but the materials they use to achieve this are very different. LFP cells use far cheaper and more eco-friendly materials, such as iron and oxygen, whereas lithium-ion uses more expensive materials, such as nickel, and even some highly toxic and environmentally catastrophic materials like cobalt. <a href="https://medium.com/predict/catls-latest-battery-is-a-massive-leap-in-the-right-direction-da54b97273f3">Website</a>