Latest news with #ContemporaryAmperexTechnologyCo.Ltd.
Miami Herald
3 hours ago
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
GM will import batteries from China for new Bolt as it works to get US plant going
General Motors Co. will import batteries from China for the upcoming electric Chevrolet Bolt as it works to get a U.S. plant up and running. GM will buy lithium-iron-phosphate batteries from China's Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday and a source close to the matter confirmed to The Detroit News on Friday. Ford Motor Co. also has an agreement to license technology from the Chinese battery giant for a multibillion-dollar battery plant in south-central Michigan, a deal that has faced some political backlash. "For several years, other U.S. automakers have depended on foreign suppliers for LFP battery sourcing and licensing," according to a GM statement. "To stay competitive, GM will temporarily source these packs from similar suppliers to power our most affordable EV model. We're proud that we sell 12 EVs in the U.S. using domestically-produced battery cells, and in 2027 we will bring LFP production to the U.S, further cementing our unique and resilient US-based supply chain." The deal highlights the difficulties U.S. manufacturers face to onshore production in response to President Donald Trump's tariffs. GM last month unveiled a plan to produce lithium-iron-phosphate batteries in Tennessee in partnership with LG Energy Solution. But production of those EV batteries, which are cheaper to make because of higher iron content, is not expected to begin until 2027. In the meantime, GM is willing to pay import taxes in exchange for more affordable batteries to go in the redesigned Bolt, a cult favorite discontinued in 2023. The new Bolt is scheduled to begin production late this year at GM's Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas. GM introduced its Bolt to the market in late 2016 and began selling the larger Bolt EUV in 2021. In 2021, the automaker had to recall all Bolts for battery fire risk as the result of manufacturing defects. Analysts say a key to EV adoption in the United States is affordability, as most EVs are priced at several thousand dollars more than gas-powered counterparts. Use of cheaper batteries, such as those using lithium-iron-phosphate technology, is seen as a path to lower costs and mainstream adoption. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Nikkei Asia
01-08-2025
- Automotive
- Nikkei Asia
EV slump isn't stopping CATL's battery production buildup
CATL leads the world in automotive battery market share. (Photo by Shizuka Tanaka) SHIZUKA TANABE GUANGZHOU -- CATL, the world's largest supplier of electric-vehicle batteries, is maintaining a high pace of production investments in an effort to stay ahead of its biggest rivals. The Chinese company, formally Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., posted a record-high 30.4 billion yuan ($4.22 billion) net profit in January-June earnings out Wednesday. Revenue grew 17% in CATL's core EV battery segment.
Miami Herald
17-05-2025
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
How a US electric vehicle battery technology became Chinese
Ford Motor Co. is licensing the blueprint for electric vehicle batteries from China for its Michigan battery plant slated to open next year, but the origins of that technology trace back to the United States. The lithium-iron-phosphate battery - a technology that's less expensive and less prone to catching fire than traditional EV batteries - originally was developed in the United States. Its opportunity was overlooked here, according to those involved in its development, but China soon found the technology fit its needs. Now, U.S. manufacturers are relying upon foreign entities of concern, resulting in backlash from Republicans in Washington, D.C., and have to play catch-up as affordable EVs become a key to unlocking greater EV adoption, which major automakers say is the future of the industry. "Our own arrogance of American thought process has got to be recalibrated," said Bob Galyen, the former chief technology officer of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the Chinese battery maker from which Ford is licensing the LFP technology for its Marshall plant in south-central Michigan. "I never dreamed of helping to create a behemoth of a corporation that is light-years ahead of everybody else." China, for years, has advanced LFP development, contributing to the nation's rise to global leadership. There were around 7 million all-electric vehicles sold in China last year, with about 64% sold in the fourth quarter using LFP batteries. Their share of the 1.3 million EVs sold in the United States last year was below 10%. Companies such as Tesla Inc. and Ford already offer EVs with LFP batteries, and General Motors Co. also plans to do so to cut costs. LFP is about 20% to 30% cheaper per kilowatt hour than nickel-manganese-cobalt batteries typically found in EVs today. The use of more abundant minerals than in NMC cells makes for a less expensive battery, paving the way for greater affordability - one of the largest challenges to EV adoption. Additionally, because LFP has a higher flashpoint and is less energy dense, it's also less likely to catch fire, though it limits how far an EV can travel on a single charge. "Single-handedly, LFP is one of the biggest things toward affordable vehicles," said Tu Le, managing director of management consulting firm Sino Auto Insights. "Governments need to support and nurture it." A Goodenough battery Today, billions of dollars are pouring into the research and development of batteries. It was a different story in the 1980s, said Arumugam Manthiram, an endowed chair of engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. That was when he came to the University of Oxford in England as a postdoctoral researcher and began working with John Goodenough, a materials scientist who in 2019 received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for contributions to the development of lithium-ion batteries. He was the oldest living Nobel laureate until his death in 2023 at 100. "It took so many years to develop as a product," Manthiram said about LFP, "but the intellectual concept was done by the great people in the great country of the United States of America - I want to say that very loud and clear - not in China." Manthiram had done his doctoral dissertation on polyanion materials at the Indian Institutes of Technology, and Goodenough was one of his examiners. At Oxford, he was testing various kinds of oxides to be used in battery cathodes, the positive terminal of a battery, to find a way to make batteries cost less and function better. "Ninety-five percent of mining is iron," Manthiram said. "There is no supply chain problem. There is no sustainability problem. So he let me explore some polyanion materials containing iron." Goodenough, who Manthiram describes as a "science-aholic," had experience developing materials for computer random-access memory; rules for predicting the sign of superexchange in materials, a property related to superconductivity; and materials to improve lithium-ion batteries. The battery research took Goodenough and Manthiram to the University of Austin at Texas in 1986. There, the scientists, funded by Texas chemistry nonprofit The Welch Foundation, published two papers in '87 and '89 on the first iron-containing cathode, opening a breakthrough for less-expensive batteries with better safety and a higher voltage than simpler iron oxides. Using the more complex iron sulfate polyanion oxide prevented the voltage from decaying so quickly. It had limits, however, Manthiram said: "For battery electrode, you need to have good electron mobility and ion mobility. The material I had, it had good lithium-ion mobility, but did not have good electron mobility. So, maybe it's a little harder to use." He became faculty at the university and pursued his own research, while Goodenough and his students continued with the iron-containing cathode work. In 1997, he published a paper on the first LFP battery. "Everything was done - concept, the intellectual recognition - was done here," Manthiram said, "but the R&D and manufacturing development happened in China, because we did not pay much attention." Although the university patented the technology, its patent didn't cover China, Manthiram said: "LFP was free for them from day one. Patenting requires real money. So the university didn't know or wasn't willing. Goodenough is exactly like I am. He wasn't a pushy person. He's just interested in the science." Limitations on energy density held back LFP in the Western world, as companies producing consumer electronics and vehicles then sought longer time of use before needing a charge, which isn't LFP's strength, Manthiram said. But opportunities for funding from the government or venture capital were limited. "The important point is the resources and not paying attention, looking near-term or for short-term gains, and not paying attention to long-term gains," Manthiram said, "not thinking through 10 years from now, five years from now. The battery industry for a long time was not making any profit. They were not willing to put in more resources by considering the long-term benefit for the country, national security, economic security and things like that. That's part of the problem." That picture has changed somewhat. There are still high-pressure demands in the private sector for short-term profitability. But a majority of Manthiram's research on cathode positive electrode materials comes from the U.S. Energy Department, and he is watching to see what efforts by the Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency will mean for future funding. "There is certainly some money that is wasted," Manthiram said about government-funded research, "but it is not a good idea to cut everything across the board. Then we won't do any innovation." One, two, A123 ... bankruptcy There are examples of North American pursuit of LFP development in the years following Goodenough's published research. Founded in 2001, A123 Systems LLC began focusing on self-organized batteries but soon shifted to LFP. Licensing technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it announced in 2005 a faster recharging nanoscale LFP battery chemistry. It had enough power for applications in products like wireless power tools. "Within a year, we went from concept to being on the shelves of Home Depot," David Vieau, former CEO of A123, said about the company's work with Black+Decker. But to further expand LFP beyond consumer electronics like laptops and cellphones, A123 had its eyes set on the automotive sector. That industry, however, didn't develop as hoped. "It was at a time when there was zero confidence that EVs could become commercially viable," Vieau said. "Toyota had broken the barrier to creating a hybrid (which was introduced to North America in 2000). It was viewed as a marketing effort, not as a commercially viable automotive program." A123's batteries hit the road in buses, it had deals with the likes of Chrysler Corp. and Fisker Automotive, it was building battery plants in Livonia and Romulus, Michigan, and had received hundreds of millions of dollars from the U.S. government. A battery failure during a Consumer Reports test in April 2012 in a Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid, however, didn't help its ambitions. In October 2012, A123 filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It was thrown into a narrative of Obama-era green energy failures with defunct California solar company Solyndra that had received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal loan guarantees - a comparison to which Vieau objects because A123's technology was "proven," and it built plants and hired people with government support. Wanxiang Group Corp., a subsidiary of the largest auto parts supplier in China, acquired its assets for $256.6 million after it had sought to acquire 80% of A123 earlier that year. U.S. firm Navitas Systems acquired the government business for $2.25 million. "The Chinese were the most aggressive and persistent" in the sale, Vieau said. "We believed the technology and product were meaningful. They would say it's true. We didn't want to see it disappear. We created thousands of jobs. We wanted the jobs to be secured." A123 closed its Romulus battery cell site in 2017 and its Livonia headquarters in 2019 as it ended manufacturing work in Michigan. It retains an office in Novi, Michigan. China had exposure to LFP before the acquisition, though. A123 had joint ventures with Chinese automaker SAIC Motor Corp. Ltd. and other companies in the Asian nation. Cost was an inhibitor to expanding battery applications, Vieau said, and China had advantages on pricing of equipment, labor and materials. But there were risks. The modus operandi of China in the '90s and 2000s, Vieau said, was intellectual property theft. A123 dissolved a joint venture with a Chinese company, which built a copy of A123's plant, despite efforts to limit employee access to more than one phase of the manufacturing process. "They are amazingly brash about it," Vieau said. "They called us to see why they couldn't make their plant work as well as we made it work. That's how they viewed it. That's normal. We don't see it the same way." Vieau added about investing in China: "It definitely is a risk, but most every major U.S. corporation has taken that risk one way or another." CATL call The same year A123 went bankrupt, Galyen moved to China and became the chief technology officer of CATL. Galyen had been the lead engineer of batteries for GM's EV1 platform produced in the late '90s and worked on battery development at GM supplier spinoff Delphi Corp. and components manufacturer Magna International Inc. Galyen was speaking at an SAE International event in Shenzhen, China, when Robin Zeng, who founded CATL in 2011, approached him. Galyen had been featured on a trade publication cover about how EVs had transformed since the 1990s. "He said, 'I want to know what you do and how you do it,' " Galyen said, recalling walking into a meeting later with Zeng. "Robin had a copy of the magazine on each of the 10 tables, and 56 of his lead engineers and engineering managers were there." It was a setup, Galyen said, and he soon was swayed. China had advantages to start. It already was producing consumer electronics with LFP batteries, though the Chinese government wasn't particularly interested in LFP for passenger vehicles at the time, Galyen acknowledged. But the Chinese government was pushing the technology in buses to reduce metropolitan pollution and limit fire risks with up to 20 battery packs on a vehicle. LFP was also versatile for handling the various climate conditions throughout China, from deserts to mountains. Galyen's work focused on battery management systems and integrating the batteries in the vehicles. The big challenge was overcoming buses being so big and heavy. Quality control was critical. "By 2017, we finally got it perfected," said Galyen, and by 2023, more than two-thirds of city buses in China were electric. Around 2014, the picture on passenger EVs began to change, Galyen said. Research showed consumers were topping off charges where they could, and LFP innovation continued to improve the energy density of those batteries. "It meant we don't need these NMC batteries for the low-range or mid-range cars," Galyen said. "People are plugging in when they get a chance, so they could get by on LFP." Government support was a significant driver of the industry, Galyen said. Through incentives for car and bus companies, consumer subsidies and rapid permitting processes, China helped put its producers in a global leadership position, he said. "The United States is going to have to step up its game," Galyen said. President Donald Trump has ordered his administration to consider discontinuing EV and battery incentives. The battery developers said that could put the United States further behind. China's fundraising also functions with a longer-term view. Historic isolationism contributed to a culture that didn't expect quick returns, Galyen said, noting that China has developed over thousands of years, while the United States isn't even 250 years old. "This is one the U.S. and Europe have failed miserably at," Galyen said. "The Chinese look at long-term investment - think five years and longer out. Private equity thinks three years or less." The time China has poured into battery manufacturing also gives it an advantage, as quality control looks at a parts per billion failure rate at the gigawatt level. Galyen recalled years ago discussing that failure rate at parts per thousands. "That's not even close to acceptable," he said. "The competition is going to take your lunch." U.S. companies are pursuing battery breakthroughs. GM this week said in 2028 it will manufacture less costly lithium manganese-rich cells at a joint-venture Ultium Cells plants in Ohio or Tennessee. Ford hailed a similar breakthrough last month on lithium manganese-rich batteries it says it will integrate in its vehicles within the decade. Stellantis NV is investing in lithium-sulfur battery startup Lyten Inc. and solid-state battery firm Factorial Inc. Galyen bets innovation is what it'll take to beat China: "I can't undersell the rate at which they are making batteries cheaper, better, faster. They are way ahead of us. They have to make it better with different technology or a better technology that outpaces it." Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CATL Gets Hong Kong Approval for This Year's Biggest Listing
(Bloomberg) -- Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the top maker of batteries for electric vehicles, won Hong Kong's approval to proceed with a listing in the city that may fetch at least $5 billion, which may be the world's biggest such offering this year. The Secret Formula for Faster Trains Midtown Office Building Evacuated on Concerns of Wall Collapse In Chicago, a Former Steel Mill Looks to Make a Quantum Leap NYC Tourist Helicopter Crashes in Hudson River, Killing Six Inside the Quiet, Extravagant Expansion of the Frick Collection The Ningde, China-based company on Thursday secured approval from the Hong Kong stock exchange, a CATL spokesman said, confirming an earlier IFR report. The company plans to start taking investor orders as soon as in May, according to people familiar with the matter. The approval clears the way for the Chinese company and its bankers to start arranging meetings soon with investors to gauge demand for the stock and determine details of the deal such as pricing. Given its scale, the offering's success will likely influence investor confidence in Hong Kong and Chinese companies, which have suffered amid all the market turmoil related to tariffs. At $5 billion, CATL's float would be the world's biggest this year. It would also be Hong Kong's largest listing since Kuaishou Technology Co.'s IPO in 2021. Second floats of China-listed firms like that of CATL are among the deals powering stock offerings in Hong Kong this year. CATL's shares have fallen 16% this year in Shenzhen. The approval comes weeks after China's securities regulator cleared CATL's plans for the Hong Kong listing. Meanwhile, CATL's global expansion is under increasing threat as China-US tensions intensify. The company earlier this year was added to a US Defense Department list of firms with alleged links to the Chinese military. While inclusion doesn't carry specific sanctions, US businesses could be discouraged from dealing with the companies on the list. (Updates with timing of deal's launch in second paragraph.) Trump Is Firing the Wrong People, on Purpose World Travelers Are Rethinking Vacation Plans to the US Cheap Consumer Goods Are the American Dream, Actually AI Coding Assistant Cursor Draws a Million Users Without Even Trying How One MBA Grad Blew the Whistle on a $2 Billion Deal ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg
25-02-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Wall Street Bankers Race to Grab Slice of $5 Billion CATL Deal
A lack of recent multibillion dollar deals made the race for a role on CATL 's Hong Kong listing even more competitive, despite low fees for bankers and a US blacklisting hanging over the world's biggest battery maker. Top banking brass such as HSBC Holdings Plc Chairman Mark Tucker pitched directly to the Chinese company, full name Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., while others shelved deals they were working on to focus instead on landing CATL, which is expected to raise more than $5 billion in Hong Kong.
