A revolutionary car battery has been developed in China that charges in 10 minutes and powers a car for hundreds of miles, raising concerns about Beijing’s growing dominance of the global electric car market.
A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) highlights important developments in chemistry that enabled a Chinese company to create a new type of high-energy battery that goes beyond existing technologies.
The Shenxing battery, developed by Chinese company CATL, uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) technology and can provide a range of up to 250 miles after just 10 minutes of charging. The latest version of the Shenxing can reportedly range up to 600 miles on a full charge.
The International Energy Agency describes it as a “significant improvement” over existing technologies, one that addresses one of the main barriers to widespread adoption of electric vehicles: long charging times, or “range anxiety.”
New Chinese battery-powered cars will need to be recharged much less frequently than most current electric cars, and at a lower cost. Popular electric cars in America, such as the Tesla Model 3 and Nissan Leaf, use battery technology that still requires much longer charging times. The Model 3, with its lithium-ion battery, can get about 170 miles in 30 minutes on a DC fast charger. Meanwhile, an aircraft equipped with a lithium manganese oxide (LiMn2O4) battery can add approximately 90 miles of range in the same period.
The rapid progress made by Chinese companies in electric vehicle technology has raised major concerns among global competitors and policymakers about the country’s dominance in battery technology. China has made several breakthroughs in battery chemistry, putting itself ahead of its Western competitors, according to the International Energy Agency.
The IEA report raised alarms about China’s stranglehold on the supply of vital materials needed for battery production, which could lead to economic and strategic disadvantages for other countries.
Electric vehicle batteries require many rare earth metals to function. Their cathodes generally include nickel, lithium, manganese, cobalt, and iron compounds, while their anodes typically contain graphite and silicon compounds. China has authority over many of those raw materials, including ownership of 90% of the global supply of graphite used in batteries, according to the International Energy Agency.
The report stressed that China’s dominance could disrupt global net zero rollouts due to potential vulnerabilities in supply chains caused by “extreme weather, trade disputes, or geopolitical tensions.”
China’s global dominance in electric vehicles is driven by its vast domestic market, which is affected by deep government subsidies for consumers. According to the report, 60% of all electric vehicles sold globally last year were purchased by Chinese buyers.
President Joe Biden this week announced a 100% tariff on electric vehicles imported from China, a protectionist move aimed at defending the U.S. auto industry and a domestic EV market that has been growing erratically with the influx of cheap Chinese EVs.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
