CATL announces new EV skateboard platform capable of withstanding 120 km/h impact without catching fire
Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), the world’s biggest EV battery maker, has launched a new electric vehicle chassis that has safety as its key selling point. According to the company, the new skateboard platform – called “panshi” in Chinese, which translates to “bedrock” – is capable of withstanding a 120 km/h frontal impact without catching fire or exploding.
The company aims to sell the platform to premium car makers seeking to accelerate development and lower costs, Reuters reports. In November, CATL chairman Robin Zeng disclosed the project to the news agency, saying it could slash the cost of developing a new EV from billions of dollars to just USD10 million, essentially making a niche EV firm profitable by selling just 10,000 cars a year.
This, he said, could open the industry to new EV players in economies without established automakers. He added then that CATL had shown the platform to Porsche for a potential luxury EV as well as to investors in the United Arab Emirates eager to start a local 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 achieve further growth. Besides this, CATL is also looking into micro power grids and is building a battery swapping service.
The announcement is not the first time a CATL skateboard chassis has been mentioned. Late last year, CarNewsChina reported that the company had revealed a CIIC – or CATL integrated intelligent chassis – platform had completed testing on a B-segment sedan, with highlights being a 1,000 km range and the ability to gain 300 km of travel range with a five minute charge.
While angled towards the premium segment, the low cost of developing a new EV through it as mentioned earlier could potentially see take up from automakers playing lower afield, even established ones. For example, the Perodua EV slated to arrive next year.
As mentioned during the eMO-II Concept‘s reveal earlier this month, the battery for the production vehicle will be an LFP battery sourced from CATL. No mention has yet been made of the platform, electric motors and other associated components the car will utilise, but a skateboard unit such as this would integrate things into a single, efficient package and keep development costs down.
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