FUZHOU, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) — Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL), China's largest automotive lithium-ion battery maker, unveiled its focus on the development of cell-to-pack (CTP) batteries to improve efficiency and lower costs.
To safely and efficiently manage the battery cells mounted in an electric vehicle (EV), battery cells are installed in modules and packs. Generally, a cluster of cells make up a module and a cluster of modules make up a pack. Ultimately, each electric vehicle is installed with one pack.
CTP, the company's latest product platform, skips the process of battery modules and allows cells to be directly integrated into packs.
Using the CTP technology, which includes more than 70 core patents, CATL can increase mass-energy density by 10 to 15 percent, improve volume utilization efficiency by 15 to 20 percent and reduce the amount of parts for battery packs by 40 percent.
A CTP battery can increase the system energy density from 180 Wh/kg to more than 200 Wh/kg. At the cell level, the energy density has already reached 240 Wh/kg in 2019, and by 2024 CATL aims to increase energy density to 350 Wh/kg.
CATL has recently declared a series of key technological breakthroughs including ultra-fast charging solutions which enable its cells to be charged to 80 percent in 15 minutes and ensure 400 km of driving mileage, self-heating technology that enables batteries to warm up from 20 degrees Celcius below zero to 10 degrees Celcius in 15 minutes, and innovations that help improve total EV battery life to 600,000 km.
Headquartered in the city of Ningde, east China's Fujian Province, CATL is the world's largest maker of lithium-ion batteries with an annual sales volume of 21.31 GWh in 2018.
Leading international partners that CATL is working with to facilitate worldwide e-mobility include BMW, Volkswagen, Daimler, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo, Honda and Toyota.