Gotion High-Tech, a Chinese battery manufacturer backed by Volkswagen, has introduced a cost-effective electric vehicle (EV) battery named Astroinno. This groundbreaking battery utilizes an iron-based composition and boasts an impressive range of more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) on a single charge, all without relying on costly materials like cobalt and nickel.
Significance: The manganese-based cathode technology employed in the Astroinno battery makes it a potential game-changer for mainstream automakers, including Volkswagen. Compared to traditional lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) batteries, this new battery offers higher energy density while being more affordable by minimizing the reliance on nickel and cobalt.
Specifications: At the cell level, the Astroinno battery achieves an energy density of 240 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg), with a system-level rating of 190 Wh/kg. By comparison, major competitor CATL’s latest Qilin battery achieves a system-level energy density of around 255 Wh/kg, while BYD is working on increasing its blade battery’s energy density from 150 Wh/kg to 180 Wh/kg by 2025.
According to Cheng Qian, Gotion’s executive president of the international business unit, EVs equipped with a 140 kilowatt-hour (kWh) battery pack powered by the Astroinno battery can achieve a driving range exceeding 1,000 kilometers. This performance level is comparable to CATL’s Qilin battery, as reported by Bloomberg. Additionally, the Astroinno batteries can be charged from low levels to 80% in just 18 minutes and maintain an 88% yield rate even at frigid temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius, ensuring reliable EV range in cold weather conditions.
Manufacturing and Context: Gotion plans to commence manufacturing the Astroinno battery as early as 2024, although specific clients have not been disclosed yet. Notably, Gotion recently secured a contract to become Volkswagen’s primary supplier of cobalt-free, unified LFP battery cells for its EV series outside of China. The battery maker has not revealed the exact number of batteries it will supply to Volkswagen under this contract.
In 2020, Gotion received a significant $1.2 billion investment from Volkswagen, making the automaker its largest shareholder. As China’s fourth-largest battery manufacturer, Gotion shipped 14.1 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of batteries last year, trailing behind CATL, BYD, and CALB, according to SNE Research. Gotion’s battery deliveries to Volkswagen are expected to commence in the first half of 2024, catering to vehicles built on Volkswagen’s Scalable Systems Platform (SSP), the next-generation platform for smart electric cars.
