SHANGHAI: China's CATL said today it was working with partners to develop electric passenger planes as they unveiled a condensed matter battery it said was strong enough to power such an aircraft.
The world's biggest maker of batteries for electric vehicles made the announcement at the Shanghai auto show and said it would also launch a version for cars that would go into mass production this year.
"The launch of this cutting-edge technology breaks the limits that have long restricted the development of the battery sector and will open up a new scenario of electrification centring on a high level of safety and light weight," the company said in a news release.
CATL said the condensed battery has an energy density of up to 500 Wh/kg. In comparison, its current Qilin Li-ion battery, which began mass production in March 2022, provides an energy density of 255 Wh/kg, good for up to 1,000km of range. The Qilin battery is used on multiple BEVs such as ZEEKR, AITO and Li Auto.
CATL did not specify who its airline partners were but said it was practising aviation-level standards and testing in accordance with industry requirements.
"We believe that condensed batteries will have a positive and far-reaching impact on achieving carbon neutrality," CATL's chief scientist Wu Kai told a media conference.
The company announced on Tuesday that its core operations would be carbon neutral by 2025, with the rest following in 2035.
Its Yibin factory in the south-western province of Sichuan was certified as the world's first zero-carbon battery factory last year.
"We think carbon neutrality is a good thing for the whole of human society," said a CATL specialist.
The specialist said he thought other Chinese companies would soon follow suit and that China itself has pledged to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
China is by far the largest emitter, responsible for roughly a quarter of all current carbon pollution.
