China's CATL is developing new nickel-cobalt-free electric vehicle batteries

Shanghai company executives said on Saturday that Tesla supplier China Contemporary Ampere Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL) is developing a new type of electric vehicle (EV) battery that does not contain nickel or cobalt. Nickel and cobalt are key components in electric vehicle batteries. Battery manufacturers from Japan's Panasonic Corporation to South Korea's LG Chemical Corporation are reducing the amount of expensive cobalt used in nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) batteries or nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) batteries. Tesla boss Elon Musk urged miners to produce more nickel last month and warned that the current battery cost is still a major obstacle to the company's development. CATL, headquartered in Ningde, manufactures NCM batteries and provides lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries to Tesla. It has established partnerships with Toyota Motor and Honda Motor in Japan, and provides products for Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) and Daimler in Germany. CATL senior director Meng Xiangfeng said at an industry conference held by the China Automobile Manufacturers Association in Shanghai that the new battery type will be different from the existing NCA, NCM and LFP batteries and will not contain expensive metals such as nickel or cobalt. Meng did not provide a detailed composition or planned battery type cost. CATL has also developed a separate technology to directly integrate battery cells into the EV's frame to extend its driving range.