EV battery giant CATL says its tech is even better than Tesla-rival BYD’s

Hong Kong
CNN
 — 

China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s largest producer of electric vehicle batteries, has unveiled an upgraded battery it says promises an even longer range than rival BYD’s cutting-edge technology.

Both tech giants now boast they have batteries that can charge EVs in as little as five minutes. But on Monday, CATL upped the ante by announcing that its new Shenxing battery has a range of 320 miles, about 70 miles longer than BYD’s stated range of 250 miles. By comparison, Tesla’s Superchargers lag way behind by delivering 200 miles of range in a 15-minute charge.

“Once again, we are pushing the boundaries of performance beyond limits,” CATL’s Chief Technology Officer Gao Huan said at the company’s Tech Day in Shanghai.

“Our goal is to make the CATL Shenxing supercharging battery the standard for electric vehicles, bringing users a more convenient and freer travel experience,” he added.

CATL’s innovation was announced just a month after BYD shocked the EV industry with its own agenda-setting launch. The dueling tech underscores the intense competition taking place in China’s EV sector, which is fueling relentless innovation at low prices.

The upgraded Shenxing, which has a full battery capacity of 500 miles, was launched alongside a new sodium-ion battery, Naxtra, which CATL touted as a more affordable and safer alternative to lithium and lead-acid based batteries.

CATL – which supplies a wide range of car brands including Tesla, BMW, Volkswagen and Ford – was the world’s largest electric battery supplier for the eighth straight year in 2024, with a 38% share of the global market, according to SNE Research, a market research firm. BYD followed CATL with a 17.2% share.

In its filing for a planned secondary listing in Hong Kong, CATL stated that by late last year, its batteries were used in one out of every three EVs worldwide, powering about 17 million vehicles. Having listed in Shenzhen, the Chinese battery giant filed for another listing in Hong Kong in February in a bid to grow its global presence.

Gao boasted that the new Shenxing battery would power more than 67 electric vehicle models this year, without detailing the models. He said the battery performs well in extremely cold weather, delivering an 80% charge from 5% in just 15 minutes, even at temperatures as low as 14 degrees (-10 degrees Celsius).

As for the Naxtra battery, thanks to the relative abundance of sodium, it promises lower production costs. The company also emphasized the model’s enhanced safety and stability, saying it can operate in extreme weather conditions and is less prone than traditional lithium batteries to explosion and fire risks after collisions.

Gao said Naxtra batteries can deliver a range of up to 310 miles on a single charge, shorter than Shenxing’s, and is expected to enter mass production at the end of the year.

Tariffs imposed by the US President Donald Trump on China and automobiles would have a minimal impact on the battery maker, as its American business accounts for a small portion of its total shipments, a CATL representative told the China Securities Journal, a Chinese state-run newspaper.

The company has developed contingency plans since last year and is actively working with clients to negotiate solutions, the company reportedly told the paper.