CATL launched the Shenxing Plus Li-Ion LFP battery with a density of 205 Wh/kg and a range of 1000 km

Company CATL last August, it introduced the Shenxing Li-Ion LFP battery, which is particularly interesting for its very fast 4C charging (full charge in 1/4 hour, if the speed were kept constant). Moreover, it is not a laboratory exercise, because cars with these batteries have already started to be delivered to the Chinese market in these months. Just 8 months later, a new generation is introduced Shenxing Plus. It also supports very fast 4C charging, however this is now better controlled by the new BMS, so it lasts longer. As a result, while the first generation managed to charge 400 km in 10 minutes [čínského papírového] range, the new generation already manages 600 km in the same time. But this is far from the only novelty.

CATL further optimized the volume moduleless structure of the CFP 3.0 batteries, which increased the volume utilization by 7%. At the same time, work was also done on the LFP cell technology itself. The anodes have received a special 3D hexagonal structure that allows better control of the rate of expansion and contraction of this electrode during charging cycles. The technology of the cathode and the arrangement of the cells, which have a one-piece casing, have also improved. All this is behind the fact that the company managed to achieve an unexpectedly high density 205 Wh/kg at the level of the entire accumulator. This number would be excellent even for the LFP cells themselves (they usually have up to approx. 170 Wh/kg), let alone for the entire battery, i.e. including the packaging, BMS and such cells. That’s such a good number that you don’t want to believe it.

The result is that it is now much easier to produce an electric car that will have a Chinese paper range of around 1000 km with LFP cells (which are characterized by a very long life) and not just energy-wise usually much denser NMCs. Let us recall here that China already produces several electric cars that have paper ranges exceeding this magical limit and, under certain conditions, are even capable of reaching them in practice. However, the Chinese standard is generally very optimistic, so for the same cars in Europe, you can expect about 850 km on paper and about 750 km in real life per charge.