Dubbed the “king” of the battery industry, accounting for 35% of the world’s electric car battery market share, producing many billionaires, CATL is one of the “terrible” names in the list of partners that have and is shaking hands with VinFast.

Dominating the world battery industry

On October 30, Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) – the world’s largest electric car battery manufacturer officially signed a memorandum of understanding on global strategic cooperation with VinFast, a rising star of the automotive industry. world. The signing ceremony took place in Japan under the direct witness of Mr. Robin Zeng, Chairman of CATL and Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong, Chairman of Vingroup and Chairman of VinFast.

According to research, CATL is a new name that appeared about a decade ago, when China launched major support policies for the strategy of developing new energy vehicles. Along with the explosion of the Chinese electric vehicle market and waves from countries such as the US and Europe, the business founded by Mr. Robin Zeng quickly resurfaced.

CATL has in turn become a battery supplier for a series of giants in the world auto industry, initially BMW, then GM, Volkswagen and especially Tesla from 2020. On a global scale, CATL accounted for nearly 35% of the electric vehicle battery market in October 2021.

By the end of 2021, CATL stock is at more than $102 per share, with a market capitalization of more than $238 billion. After only 10 years, from an “anonymous” enterprise, this battery manufacturer became China’s leading fast-growing phenomenon with the third largest value in the country of billions of people, after the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. and Kweichow Moutai – the world famous Mao Dai wine producer. CATL is now also the business that accounts for more than half of the electric vehicle battery market in China.

CATL is also famous as the birthplace of many billionaires. According to Forbes, up to 9 people own assets of $ 1 billion or more thanks to shares in CATL. The total worth of 9 billionaires related to CATL is $ 72 billion, of which Mr. Robin Zeng – Founder, Chairman and CEO of CATL is currently the 47th richest person in the world with a fortune of 32.5 billion USD.

Breakthrough in battery technology for VinFast electric vehicles

According to industry experts, CATL’s absolute dominance and reputation in the battery industry comes from two core issues:

– Excellent quality control and

– Ability to hold pioneering technology. That’s why even during the difficult time of the epidemic, the CATL valuation still increased more than 6 times.

To keep the No. 1 position, CATL has continuously poured capital into research and development of new technologies and expanded production scale. Billions of dollars have been poured into 21 manufacturers and researchers of battery materials and many other research units. In particular, CATL has the most powerful research and development team in the world, with about 120,000 engineers in the battery field.

That is the key to helping CATL always be considered a “tycoon” in the global new technology battery industry. Notable among these is research into a new battery material that increases the energy density of the battery by up to 20%. A new technology called M3P helps increase the performance of electric cars on a single charge by up to 700km, while production costs will be reduced thanks to the structure using less precious materials such as nickel and cobalt. This technology is becoming more and more perfect when recently, CATL has launched a Qilin battery model with high energy density to optimize size and materials.

In particular, a world-first battery technology researched by CATL called the intelligent battery-integrated chassis CTC (Cell to Chassis) is considered to completely change the electric car manufacturing industry. According to the latest announcement of VinFast and CATL, the research and application of this technology is also part of the cooperation strategy between the two sides.

The CTC is one of the powerful “weapons” mentioned by the CATL Chairman at the China Automotive Green Book Forum, allowing the battery to be directly integrated into the body structure.

In theory, the chassis and battery pack are two independent components and it is difficult to integrate, because any change in the chassis will affect the entire vehicle structure, electronic control system. , voltage… However, CATL’s research has solved this problem, helping to reduce costs, reduce vehicle weight and optimize the vehicle’s operating range. According to CATL, with new technology, the battery system for electric cars can run up to 1,000 km on a single charge.

In addition to the CTC technology that brings breakthrough expectations for electric vehicles, CATL is now the first manufacturer in the world to say that it has been able to produce batteries with a lifespan of more than 16 years, with the ability to provide energy. energy for an electric car to run a distance of nearly 2 million km.

According to experts, the handshake with CATL is a worthy choice for VinFast in the application of advanced technology for batteries – the system is considered the heart of electric vehicles. Before CATL, VinFast also cooperated with a series of big companies and potential companies around the world such as Prologium for solid-state battery technology, Gotion (development of LFP batteries) or StoreDot – a well-known company from Israel to develop solid-state batteries. Developed super fast charging technology, allowing 80% full charge in just 4-5 minutes.

“Cooperating with CATL, VinFast electric cars will grow like tigers with wings. This is a sharp weapon and a good basis for the Vietnamese car company to go out to the world,” commented an expert in the automotive field in Japan.