CATL Introduces Sodium-Ion Batteries That Don’t Lose Charge in Cold Weather

China’s CATL remains the world’s largest manufacturer of traction batteries for electric vehicles and hybrids, with a 38.2% market share in the first two months of this year. This month, it introduced technologies to accelerate the charging of lithium-ion batteries and sodium-ion batteries that do not lose their charge due to temperature at minus 40 °C.

Image source: CATL

The dislike of lithium-ion batteries with liquid electrolyte to negative temperatures leads to the fact that electric vehicles, when used in winter conditions, not only lose part of the residual charge along with the power reserve, but also refuse to accept a charge at stations at the same speed as in summer. Both lithium-ion batteries with solid-state electrolyte and sodium-ion batteries, which are being developed by many companies, starting with various startups, are designed to eliminate this drawback.

As Bloomberg notes, at today’s event, which precedes the start of a major automobile exhibition in Shanghai, CATL spoke about its promising developments. First of all, the Shenxing family of lithium-ion batteries have been improved in such a way that they can now accept a charge in five minutes that is enough for 520 km of travel. Such a battery charges from zero to 80% in 15 minutes. Competing BYD, we recall, can currently offer replenishment of the charge at special high-power express stations for 400 km in the same five minutes. CATL hopes to make the updated Shenxing batteries a standard for the entire industry. It is important that these batteries will begin to use more than 67 new vehicle models this year alone.

In addition, the company announced that it had completed the development of the Naxtra family of sodium-ion batteries, which have proven themselves well during testing at both high and low temperatures. At 40-degree frost, for example, they do not lose charge, unlike the currently popular lithium-ion batteries with liquid electrolyte. For hybrids, CATL is ready to produce Naxtra batteries in capacities that provide a purely electric range of up to 200 km, and for electric vehicles – up to 500 km. The charge storage density in Naxtra family batteries reaches 175 kWh/kg.

Another important advantage of sodium-ion batteries is their higher fire safety. Sodium is also cheaper than lithium, so at some point such batteries may become more profitable to produce, although this would require a significant increase in production volumes.

At the event on Monday, CATL also demonstrated traction batteries with a hybrid chemical composition, which allows combining the advantages of different types of battery cells in one vehicle. Under certain conditions, they are capable of providing a range of up to 1,000 km. Some of CATL’s developments may also find application in aviation. At least on batteries of this brand, electric aircraft will be able to travel a distance of up to 250 km, according to company representatives.