Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s biggest EV battery maker, has launched a brand new electric vehicle chassis that has safety as its key selling point. In line with the corporate, the brand new skateboard platform – called “panshi” in Chinese, which translates to “bedrock” – is able to withstanding a 120 km/h frontal impact without catching fire or exploding.
The corporate goals to sell the platform to premium automotive makers looking for to speed up development and lower costs, Reuters reports. In November, CATL chairman Robin Zeng disclosed the project to the news agency, saying it could slash the fee of developing a brand new EV from billions of dollars to simply USD10 million, essentially making a distinct segment EV firm profitable by selling just 10,000 cars a yr.
This, he said, could open the industry to recent EV players in economies without established automakers. He added then that CATL had shown the platform to Porsche for a possible luxury EV in addition to to investors within the United Arab Emirates wanting to start a neighborhood EV brand.
The report adds that the chassis is crucial to Zeng’s ambitions to push the Chinese battery giant – which has a global market share of around 37% in EV batteries – to realize further growth. Besides this, CATL can also be looking into micro power grids and is constructing a battery swapping service.
The announcement will not be the primary time a CATL skateboard chassis has been mentioned. Late last yr, CarNewsChina reported that the corporate had revealed a CIIC – or CATL integrated intelligent chassis – platform had accomplished testing on a B-segment sedan, with highlights being a 1,000 km range and the power to achieve 300 km of travel range with a five minute charge.
While angled towards the premium segment, the low price of developing a brand new EV through it as mentioned earlier could potentially see take up from automakers playing lower afield, even established ones. For instance, the Perodua EV slated to reach next yr.
As mentioned throughout the eMO-II Concept‘s reveal earlier this month, the battery for the production vehicle might be an LFP battery sourced from CATL. No mention has yet been made from the platform, electric motors and other associated components the automotive will utilise, but a skateboard unit corresponding to this could integrate things right into a single, efficient package and keep development costs down.
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This Article First Appeared At paultan.org