China Follows New Battery Paths

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

Does China own the EV battery market?  One may be forgiven for thinking that lithium batteries have problems that cloud their future.  Battery makers worldwide are struggling to solve these problems, but China seems to have taken the lead in breakthroughs. One of the country’s biggest competitors may be Finland’s Donut Lab, which has been promoting its 400-Watt-hour-per-kilogram cells, claiming the ability to be recharged 100,000 times.   Chinese competition may not disprove these claims, but seem to up the ante. A Chinese Consortium China may have a much bigger competitor in personnel and resources with its consortium of battery and automotive manufacturers. CASIP, or the China All-Solid-State Battery Collaborative Innovation Platform.  CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited). is probably the largest company involved, with 37.9 percent of the 2024 total world battery market in its sales profile.  Other battery manufacturers include  CALB, EVE Energy, SVOLT, Gotion High-Tech, and BYD’s battery subsidiary, FinDreams Battery.  Several state-owned auto makers are involved, as …

CATL Gets Salty with Batteries

Dean Sigler Announcements, Batteries, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) in China is promoting a different battery technology that promises lower costs and a greater life span than lithium cells.  This is another way to soften the demand for lithium, which often seems in short supply.  We reported on another approach, recycling used EV battery packs, last month.  This time, we’ll look at using sodium as an active ingredient in battery cells, starting with this three-minute primer on the difference between iithium and sodium batteries. Note that lithium batteries can use NMC (nickel, manganese, and cobalt) in their cathodes.  Like lithium, nickel and cobalt are hard to find, and cobalt often comes with the curse of being mined by children in slave conditions.  LFP, or lithium iron phosphate batteries have the advantage of having more readily available materials and being somewhat safer than lithium/NMC cells. CATL’s NAXTRA Battery CATL recently presented us with several offerings in new battery technology, but NAXTRA is probably of …