The “Shenxing Supercharge Battery” “gets on board,” and CATL’s layout of battery recovery is a “new strategy”

Recently, Chery and CATL jointly announced that the Shenxing Supercharge Battery will be implemented in Chery’s Startrans era, further deepening the strategic cooperation between the two parties.

As the world’s first 4C supercharge battery that adopts lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) material and can achieve large-scale production, the Shenxing Supercharge Battery took only two months from its release to being implemented. It is reported that mass production of the Shenxing Supercharge Battery will be realized by the end of 2023. By the first quarter of next year, vehicle models equipped with the Shenxing Supercharge Battery will be officially launched on the market.

“Currently, as electric vehicles (EVs) are being rapidly adopted, users are gradually shifting their focus from ‘range anxiety’ to ‘pursuing fast charging,'” said Gao Huan, CTO of the Passenger Vehicle Division at CATL. This means that supercharge technology needs to extend from high-end vehicle models to more affordable economic models with a wider audience.

It is understood that “4C supercharge” refers to the ability to fully charge the battery within 15 minutes, equivalent to a quarter of an hour. In recent years, 4C supercharge batteries have become a key focus for major power battery manufacturers. Public information indicates that the current models supporting 4C supercharging mainly utilize ternary lithium batteries, with prices generally exceeding 400,000 yuan, resulting in a relatively high purchasing threshold.

According to analysis by industry experts, the Shenxing Supercharge Battery, which utilizes lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) material, is expected to have significantly lower costs compared to 4C supercharge batteries using ternary lithium materials. This means that more affordable economic new energy vehicles will also be able to benefit from fast charging technology, promoting “technological equality” and accelerating the widespread adoption of new energy vehicles.

In addition to popularizing fast charging technology, how to effectively handle the recycling of power batteries to make new energy vehicles more environmentally friendly and low-carbon is another crucial issue of concern both domestically and internationally.

Gao Huan stated that CATL, in collaboration with the upstream and downstream industry chain, is committed to creating an ecological closed-loop of “battery production – usage – cascaded utilization – recycling and resource regeneration.” They have also participated in the formulation of standards related to battery recycling and battery materials.

Among them, CATL’s holding subsidiary, BrunpRecycling, has established a comprehensive battery industry chain circular system with complementary advantages in the upstream and downstream sectors. BrunpRecycling was the first to solve the industry’s challenge of “waste material reduction,” achieving a maximum overall recycling rate of 99.3% for core metal materials in battery products. It is reported that the company currently has a processing capacity of 120,000 tons of waste batteries, accounting for 50.4% of the comprehensive recycling of waste batteries in China.

Previously, CATL’s “Zero Carbon Strategy” set a goal of achieving core operational carbon neutrality by 2025 and value chain carbon neutrality by 2035. It is worth mentioning that CATL is also exploring strategic cooperation with local European suppliers, focusing on the field of cathode active materials and battery recycling, extending the sustainable development of the battery value chain, and contributing to the global decarbonization of new energy vehicles.

（source of the article：China Youth Daily）