CATL, the world’s largest electric vehicle battery manufacturer, succeeded in bringing its research on battery longevity to retail.
The company announced a battery for electric vehicles that can last 15 years and does not lose capacity over 1,000 charge/discharge cycles.
The long-lasting battery for electric vehicles will first go into the fleet of major electric bus manufacturer Yutong, which often subjects its buses to extreme challenges such as heat, cold or climbing, to test their endurance.
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CATL also partnered with NIO to help it test and deploy lifetime batteries for electric cars that will allow EV manufacturers to give a 15-year warranty on batteries.
This could spearhead the used EV market, as more than 20 million cars will start coming out of warranty in the next few years.
Battery Benchmark
CATL already supplies battery packs that last 12 years for NIO’s EV battery swap stations. Its new 15-year battery will first be targeted at heavier vehicles, such as buses or trucks, which tend to be used longer than cars.
In fact, NIO and CATL are not only striving to deploy a 15-year warranty for EV batteries, but also to require 85% remaining capacity after that period.
In addition to zero degradation at 1,000 cycles and a 15-year life before capacity drops to 85%, the new long-life CATL battery is rated to travel 1.5 million kilometers during its years in service, or nearly one million miles.
It is unknown what exact chemistry CATL used, but, knowing its history, the new 15-year EV battery is likely the product of refinements to existing technologies.
