The Chinese company Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. (CATL) has been making electric vehicle battery since 2011. It has been supplying lithium-ion batteries to Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota and others. According to an interview given by its CEO Zeng to Bloomberg recently, CATL has developed million mile electric vehicle battery. Its battery pack can last about 16 years and 2 million kilometres (1.24 million miles).
Zeng, 52, mentioned that it would cost only about 10% more than presently used electric vehicle battery. There was no such mention whether any contracts for the long-distance battery pack have been signed.
CATL has entered into a two-year contract in February to supply electric vehicle batteries to Tesla for its Shanghai giga factory. Tesla elsewhere has been using Panasonic and LG Chem Ltd batteries.
CATL is adding a production facility in Germany. It will provide about 70% of batteries required by BMW, an early customer of CATL.
Tesla and GM too have been working on long distance electric vehicle batteries. But, none have claimed to reach a million mile battery.
Source: Bloomberg
