CATL of China has officialized the launch of the high-nickel ternary (NCM·NCMA) battery, which is the key product of its South Korean and Japanese counterparts. CATL has been ranked the highest in global market share for the third year with the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery. By adding high-nickel ternary batteries to the lineup following LFP, it became the only company in the industry to secure two cathode active material technologies in the EV battery market, which is divided into ternary and LFP.
High-nickel ternary batteries were listed in the 5th ‘New Energy Vehicle Supply and Application Recommended List’ of the year 2022, which was recently announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China. The energy density of the battery supplied by CATL to Lantu Motors is 212Wh per kg. This is an NCM (nickel, cobalt, manganese) ternary battery, and it is CATL’s second-generation high-nickel product. The energy density of ternary (NCM) batteries mainly produced by South Korean companies is equivalent to 200 to 230 Wh per kg. The NCM ratio is estimated to be 8:1:1.
CATL plans to apply CTP (Cell to Pack) technology to ternary batteries, which was previously mainly used in LFP batteries, likely to result in an increase in the energy density of the ternary battery system.
The Chinese government has listed 44 models of domestic electric vehicles on the list that recognizes eligibility for electric vehicle subsidies. 19 electric vehicle models were equipped with lithium iron phosphate batteries and 23 models were equipped with ternary batteries. The number of battery electric vehicles equipped with CATL batteries was the highest consisting of 10 models. Since electric vehicles equipped with South Korean batteries were excluded from this list in 2017, they haven’t been included in the list.
An industry official on the 14th said, “Although CATL’s high-nickel ternary battery customer is Chinese automobile manufacturers, the day CATL will start supplying to global automobile companies is not far off. If CATL applies CTP technology to prismatic ternary batteries, the energy density will be significantly higher than South Korean ternary batteries.”
By Staff Reporter Tae-jun Park gaius@etnews.com