October 4, 2024: After years of dominating the passenger EV segment, CATL’s mission to target new sectors to boost growth looks set to be a gamble that is paying off.
Back in June, Robin Zeng, the chairman and CEO of the world’s largest EV battery maker spoke at the “Not Losing Momentum on the Energy Transition” session at the 15th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions, or Summer Davos, in China’s Dalian city. “Players in the battery industry should compete on technology advancement, safety, reliability, delivering value that will accelerate the energy transition and secure our green future,” he said.
His speech made it clear that CATL is not slowing down. Quite the opposite. Last month the battery giant launched its newest battery, the Tianzing Bus version, opening a new era for the bus industry and cementing the company’s move into commercial vehicles.
With ‘the highest energy density in the bus industry,’ the firm claims its new ‘tailor-made’ EV battery can last 15 years and nearly one million miles. CATL said the bus battery, the latest from its Tianxing (Tectrans) commercial brand, has an improved energy density of 22% compared to the previous generation. In July, the company launched the new series with its first Tianxing-L battery, designed for light commercial vehicles.
CATL said this new offering has an ‘ultra-long warranty’ of 10 years or one million kilometres (621,400 miles).
According to the firm, the battery will power 80 electric buses and CATL says it already has 13 companies in line for delivery.
In 2023, CATL invested about 18.4 billion yuan ($2.59 bn) in R&D. This significant investment has led to breakthroughs like TENER, the world’s first mass-producible energy storage system with zero degradation in the first five years of use, and Shenxing PLUS, the world’s first LFP battery that achieves a range above 1,000 kilometers with 4C superfast charging.
According to the latest SNE Research data, CATL accounted for 31.6% of global EV battery sales in the second quarter. China’s BYD was second with 14.7% and as of August 2024, CATL held a 37.6% share of the global EV battery market.
It has also been reported in Chinese media that the goliath is adding two more factories to its six already planned globally. These are apparently in Germany, Thailand, Hungary, Indonesia, and two in the US (servicing Ford and Tesla).
A third in the US could be possible with GM considering building a plant with Japan’s TDK that would license tech from CATL for LFP batteries.
Hao Huan, CTO of CATL’s domestic passenger division, said the new electric bus battery “pays tribute to the 10 years of vigorous development of China’s commercial vehicle market”.
