CATL launched the Shenxing Battery in China on August 16, saying it can get 400 kilometers of range on a 10-minute charge.
(Image credit: CnEVPost)
CATL will produce Shenxing Battery in Germany and Hungary, a new lithium iron phosphate (LFP)-based battery supporting ultra-fast charging that the Chinese power battery giant announced last month.
CATL will produce the upcoming fast-charging Shenxing Battery at plants in Germany and Hungary alongside China, the battery maker's principal engineer Gao Pengfei said on Monday at the IAA Munich auto show, according to a Reuters report.
Gao declined to provide a timeline for production in Europe and said CATL has not yet finalized offtake agreements with customers in the region, according to the report.
CATL unveiled the battery, called the Shenxing Superfast Charging Battery, in China on August 16, saying it is the world's first LFP battery to support 4C charging.
C refers to the charging rate of the battery, and 4C means that the battery can theoretically be fully charged in a quarter of an hour.
The Shenxing Battery can get 400 kilometers of range on a 10-minute charge and 700 kilometers on a full charge, CATL said in the event.
The Shenxing Battery will be mass-produced by the end of 2023 and available in the first quarter of 2024, when customers will be able to buy cars powered by the battery, CATL said last month.
The LFP chemistry costs less than the nickel-cobalt-manganese cells used by automakers such as BMW or Tesla in cylindrical cells, the Reuters report yesterday quoted Gao as saying.
CATL's plant in Germany, located in the state of Thuringia, achieved mass production in December 2022 of lithium-ion battery cells.
CATL plans to invest a total of €1.8 billion in the German plant, with a planned capacity of 14 GWh, which will provide a total of 2,000 local jobs in the future, the company said last December.
The battery maker's plant in Hungary is under construction in an industrial park south of Debrecen.
CATL announced on August 12, 2022 its plans to build a battery production site in Hungary, a project that will have a total construction period of no more than 64 months, according to a stock exchange announcement at the time.
The Hungarian plant, which will be CATL's second in Europe in addition to its German plant, will produce cells and module products for European automakers, the company said last September.
CATL unveils Shenxing Battery, claims 400 km range on 10-minute charge