Li Auto Pure EV Might Use CATL’s Kirin Battery
On Thursday afternoon, CATL released the third generation of its Kirin battery with CTP technology. Li Xiang, the founder, Chairman and CEO of Li Auto, later reposted a related news and commented “See you next year“, suggesting next year’s pure electric model of Li Auto would have Kirin batteries. CATL also reposted Li’s comment and added “Kirin has an ideal”, further suggesting cooperation between the two companies.
Kirin Batteries are high-efficiency battery packs with the CTP 3.0 solution. CATL utilizes CTP high-efficiency pack formation technology to improve pack volume utilization through a highly integrated structure design. The pack volume utilization rate increases from 55% to 72% from the first generation of CTP to the latest third generation of Kirin battery. The energy density of the Kirin battery system can reach up to 255Wh/kg for a ternary system and 160Wh/kg for a lithium iron phosphate system. The battery can easily achieve 1,000km range for the entire vehicle and will be available in mass production in 2023.
Li Auto released its new flagship SUV, Li L9, on Tuesday but the company’s server crashed after subscriber reservations were opened that night. However, Li Xiang’s remark during a live-stream in which he said that “drivers are of low rank and low status” caused widespread concern and debate on the Internet on Thursday.
SEE ALSO: Li Auto L9 Debuts, Pricing at $68,657
In response, Li responded by posting on Weibo, “The remark of mine circulated in the Internet is not complete. What I want to say is that in the definition of the product of many large cars, the primary purpose is to take care of ‘the boss’ in the back row, while the driver is the least important, so the compatibility and experience of the driver can be sacrificed. Our product is not defined this way. We consider the driver to be important and should not be interfered with. They should have access to ventilation and massage. Please forgive me if I inaccurately expressed myself during the live broadcast.”
Meanwhile, Li Auto said that recently, some video bloggers had misinterpreted Li Xiang’s remarks in the video interview through malicious editing, and this has caused a negative image of Li Xiang and the company. Li Auto has said it will take legal action if necessary to put an end to the unfounded and malicious slandering.
