Chinese and South Korean EV Battery Manufacturers Focusing on Different Types of Batteries

CATL, the top player in the global EV battery market, is working on the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries as an inexpensive alternative to LFP batteries. South Korean EV battery manufacturers are responding by developing all-solid-state batteries, which are currently the most advanced form in terms of stability, charging speed and driving range.

CATL unveiled the world’s first sodium-ion battery for use in electric vehicles in July this year and is planning to start commercial production next year. The battery has a cell energy density of 160 Wh/kg and it takes 15 minutes to charge 80 percent of the battery at room temperature. The Chinese company is currently aiming to reach 200 Wh/kg.

Chinese EV battery manufacturers have concentrated on LFP batteries so far, which are lower in performance but more stable and less expensive than NCM and NCMA batteries. What CATL is aiming to achieve with sodium-ion batteries are a lower price and a higher level of stability. In the long term, the company is going to release a combination of sodium-ion and lithium-ion batteries.

In the meantime, LG Energy Solution recently developed a long-life all-solid-state battery technology enabling rapid charging at room temperature. The development is the world’s first silicon-based all-solid-state battery technology that enables more than 500 times of charge and discharge at room temperature. According to the company, the remaining capacity of the battery is more than 80 percent even after 500 times of charge and discharge and its energy density is about 140 percent of that of a commercial lithium-ion battery.

Samsung SDI is also working on all-solid-state batteries and its target year of commercialization is 2027. Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, which is working with it, released a research result in March last year on an all-solid-state battery that can be charged and discharged more than 1,000 times and is capable of covering a distance of 800 kilometers once fully charged.

SK Innovation is working on a lithium-metal battery as one type of all-solid-state battery in cooperation with University of Texas professor and Nobel Prize winner John Goodenough.