CATL: New Skateboard Chassis Products Will Be Mass-Produced This Year
At the 2024 China Electric Vehicle Hundred People’s Forum, Yang Hanbing, General Manager of CATL (Shanghai) Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd., revealed that the company’s first skateboard chassis product based on lithium iron phosphate batteries is expected to start mass production in the second half of this year. In November last year, CATL announced its first B-class car with a skateboard chassis using ternary lithium batteries and a range exceeding 1000 kilometers, completing winter testing in Heihe and summer testing in Turpan.
The skateboard chassis is an innovation in the field of new energy vehicles. Unlike traditional car chassis designs, it focuses on the core components of batteries, motors, and electronic control units (ECUs), reducing the need for distributed ECUs. Yang Hanbing believes that the skateboard chassis has huge development potential in the field of new energy passenger vehicles because it not only changes the basic properties of cars but also enhances user experience and adapts to the trend of intelligence.
The skateboard chassis technology of CATL has been under development since 2018, based on CTC technology, aiming for efficiency, light weight, low cost and safety. The design of this chassis achieves multi-dimensional decoupling of the vehicle body, making it an independently driven carrier while improving resource utilization efficiency and intelligent experience.
Yang Hanbing emphasized that the skateboard chassis of CATL has the advantages of fast speed, low cost, and design freedom. For example, it can help car manufacturers launch new models within 18 months, significantly shortening the traditional development cycle of 36 to 48 months. In addition, the skateboard chassis of CATL can reduce overall vehicle development costs and BOM costs, providing cost advantages for partners.
In terms of safety, the skateboard chassis of CATL can absorb up to 85% of impact energy, reducing the impact on vehicle safety caused by styling. It also provides open E interfaces and mechanical interfaces, providing greater design freedom for automotive designers and product managers.
The skateboard chassis of CATL also shows innovation and advancement in terms of energy consumption and fast charging. For example, its energy consumption is only 11 kWh per 100 kilometers, much lower than other vehicles. Fast charging technology allows the battery SOC to be charged from 30% to 80% within 10 minutes, thanks to the company’s research and development of an 800V electric drive system with a comprehensive efficiency as high as 91.7%.
Currently, CATL has cooperated with multiple automotive companies, including Neta Auto and Vietnam’s Vinfast. It has also signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Altair and 91Bihu to jointly establish an industrial ecological alliance in the skateboard chassis field. Yang Hanbing finally stated that CATL is actively promoting the standardization work of skateboard chassis and looks forward to collaborating with partners across the industry chain.
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