CATL reveals ‘Superfast Charging Battery,’ boasts 250mi range with 10-min charge

[hliyan]

While I do believe there is an advancement here, I tend to take the source with a pinch of salt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrek

> Their positive coverage of Tesla has been criticized by some automotive journalists.[3][4][5] Its main authors have disclosed ownership of Tesla stock, substantial profit from referrals to Tesla, and ownership of Tesla cars.[6][2] The owner, Seth Weintraub, also disclosed near total divestment from Tesla stock on January 14, 2020.

Worth seeing whether their new investment is in CATL https://www.google.com/finance/quote/300750:SHE?window=5Y

[bertil]

I would be less worried about their interest through stock ownership than how much this article and others like it reads like a passable re-wording of the press release.

I own stock in Tesla and other renewable technology companies (production, transport). I’d be shocked if anyone didn’t: either those industries win, or most places between the tropics are not compatible for human life, we have to deal with billions of deaths and billions of refugees (the IPCC report is ambivalent on other points, but this one is presented as highly likely). Electrek isn’t hiding which side of that bet they are taking. If there were many electric transport companies, owning stock in one over the others would be a source of bias, but there isn’t any meaningful competition yet.

If they wrote critically about battery swapping, I’d be concerned if they had stock on Tesla but not BYD. This is not that. In this case, CATL has proven anything but willing to sell to willing buyers: everyone can rejoice the offer is expanding; it might not fit everyone’s needs.

I’m worried that they show (in that article in particular and many others, but not always) a willingness to copy the contents of the CATL press release with little added value. They could highlight that CATL has not mentioned pricing, capacity, form factor, etc. Early technology tends to come with little production capacity, and suppliers tend to favor historical partners: they might not sell to anyone but Tesla and BYD for months. That restricted release and others like this one could unbalance the market in favor of more prominent players for a while.

Whether you are a cheerleader or a adversary, that lack of systematic grid to read a press release shows that Electrek lacks critical reading structure. That’s a concern.

[tooltalk]

Yeah, they have been pumping out quite a few pointless headliners recently. My favorite is:

  Volvo’s heavy-duty electric truck runs 12 hours a day with one charge break, can haul 74 tons --  Jun 29 2023

I also see there is a bit too much hype around LFP's by Tesla's fanbois who seems to believe that LFP must be the holy grail in the battery world b/c Tesla uses them.

[abeppu]

> CATLs new fast-charging LFP battery is equipped with in-house technology, including fast ion ring technology, a new superconducting electrolyte formulation, and an ultra thin and safer separator.

... is the electrolyte actually superconducting or did something get lost in copy editing? Presumably it's not kept at super low temps and high pressure?

[coryrc]

Translation. It's not a "superconductor".

[tripdout]

It used LK99 up until today!

[mrandish]

Safely and reliably putting that much energy into a mass manufactured automotive battery in that short of a time period is a pretty extraordinary claim based on where we are today. So I'm going to have to put it into the "That'd be great but we're gonna need some extraordinary evidence" category for now.

[candiodari]

I kind of wonder at what point do batteries become too dangerous. If a battery can absorb that kind of power in such a time ... exactly what amount of time does it need to release that energy again?

In particular, does it release it fast enough to blow up a building?

[gyrccc]

These specs could catapult LFP above all other battery chemistries. "400km in 10min" for a 700km range battery would mean 60% charge in 10min, which is about 1.5x the speed of today's fastest-charging NMC batteries. Hopefully there's not too much weight or discharge rate penalty. Excited for the future of LFP!

[tooltalk]

>> CATL said at the event that the Shenxing Superfast Charging Battery is capable of adding 248 miles (400 km) in 10 minutes.<<

this is an extraordinary claim if true.

[toomuchtodo]

434 mile range, 4C charging, charge 0 to 80% in 30 mins, even in tempratures as low as -10℃ (14℉).

It’s a big deal.

[Kirby64]

Teslas NMC chemistry already does 0-80% in 25 mins. Their LFP (which is made by CATL I think) does 10-80% in roughly 25 mins.

The impressive thing is the charging at -10C, where LFP typically doesn't like to be charged below 0C. I wonder what's special that allows this variant of LFP to be charged below freezing.

[bertil]

Some people in this thread have concerns about how hot the cable might get[0]

I’m curious if one could take the heat from the cable and use it to warm the battery. It feels way too much to ask for an already busy port, and the timing might be off (the cable gets warmer as the battery is already charging), but maybe store the heat between users and have a radiator under the carriage?

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37157119

[tooltalk]

>> 434 mile range, 4C charging, charge 0 to 80% in 30 mins, even in tempratures as low as -10℃ (14℉). ... It’s a big deal<<

This is nothing burger.

[zeroping]

The use of 'miles' here is just silly. We should be discussing the 4C charge rate and in what conditions, not how many miles in some specific car.

[bertil]

Electrek targets casual readers: distance remains what most people relate to—although I would recommend giving two values, one for a representative small car and one for a larger model, if only to hammer that larger cars are what makes charging so challenging.

[inamberclad]

Fantastic, hopefully this is motivation for an improved charging grid as well.

[gorkish]

What, we didn’t get Electrek’s take on the superconducting ion rings? Wonder who paid for this article.

[sowbug]

In mice.

[programmer_dude]

Revolutionary if true.

[DrFlipper]

With a charging cable like a tree trunk, that doubles as a space heater?

[thot_experiment]

IIRC there are water cooled cables that can do 350kW, the charging is generally done at pretty high voltages so you "only" need like 50 amps or something totally reasonable. Obviously the power delivery to a station simultaneously charging 10 of these would be challenging, but it's not outside of the realm of possibility.