China's battery major Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) is developing a new type of electric vehicle battery that will not use expensive metals nickel or cobalt. The company, which provides batteries to Tesla for its electric cars, will instead come up with a completely new composition of batteries.
The development was confirmed by Meng Xiangfeng, a senior executive at CATL, at an industry conference held by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in Shanghai.
Nickel and cobalt are the main ingredients in the most prevalent battery type that powers EVs across the globe. The cost of these minerals is one of the biggest hurdles in the growth of the EV industry, keeping a sky-high price for the EVs in comparison with the fossil fuel-run vehicles. The adoption is, hence, limited till these minerals are being used in batteries.
Battery makers are thus trying to cut their dependence on these metals. Just like CATL, Japan's Panasonic Corp and South Korea's LG Chem are also using various combinations to lower the percentage of expensive cobalt in their EV batteries.
For now, Meng did not provide any details on the composition of the said battery type. There is also no hint at the price of it.
The company, however, might follow what others are doing, lowering the use of cobalt through metals like aluminium and manganese in nickel-cobalt-aluminium (NCA) or nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) battery types.
Meng, however, has mentioned that the new battery by CATL will be a completely new type and will have no percentage of cobalt or nickel whatsoever. As and when that happens, it will be interesting to see if the company is able to come up with a product that delivers the same energy density as the most widely used combination.
In addition to the new battery type, CATL is also developing a new technology that will allow the integration of battery cells directly into an EV's frame. This would further enable an extended driving range on the EV.
(With inputs from Reuters)