China has developed a revolutionary car battery that can charge in just 10 minutes and power a car for hundreds of miles before needing to plug it in.
A report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) has hailed “remarkable” developments in chemistry that have enabled China to develop new batteries that contain far more energy than existing technologies.
The IEA highlighted EV batteries capable of traveling 250 miles without recharging. Newer versions announced since the report was written can go 600 miles.
However, the agency sounded the alarm over China’s growing dominance in the supply of vital materials needed to build batteries. The country’s stranglehold on supply chains means the global net-zero rollout could be disrupted by “extreme weather, trade disputes or geopolitical factors”.
The IEA’s Global Critical Minerals Outlook report highlighted that Chinese battery company CATL had developed a fast-charging “Shenxing” battery “capable of providing 400 km of range with a ten-minute charge”. The battery is expected to be deployed in electric vehicles later this year, the IEA said.
The report was written before CATL’s latest announcement last month that it had developed a new battery, the Shenxing Plus, capable of a range of 600 miles between charges.
That means cars powered by China’s new batteries would need to be refueled far less often than most current electric vehicles and at a fraction of the cost.
The report said China has made a series of breakthroughs in battery chemistry that put it far ahead of its Western rivals.
“One of the most notable developments in the global battery sector over the past five years has been the resurgence of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode chemistry,” the statement said.
This is a reference to innovations that have removed dead space in batteries, roughly doubling energy density and thus massively extending range.
The move will likely be welcomed by drivers, who have long complained about “range anxiety” with electric vehicles.
However, the IEA report warns that China has cornered much of the global market for minerals critical to battery manufacturing, a fact that will alarm many Western governments concerned about Beijing’s grip on the battery market. green energy.
The IEA report examined the global supply, demand and uses of minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and copper, all of which are becoming increasingly vital for producing low-cost energy. carbon content.
Supply of most of these metals is increasing, but the IEA says markets are dominated by China.
Electric vehicle batteries depend on several minerals. For example, cathodes typically include nickel, lithium, manganese, cobalt, and iron compounds, while anodes typically contain graphite and silicon compounds.
The IEA said China now dominated the global supply of all these minerals. It said: “More than 90% of battery-grade graphite and 77% of refined rare earths in 2030 will come from China. »
He adds: “By 2030, approximately 70-75% of the projected growth in the supply of refined lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements comes from today’s top three producers. For battery-grade spherical and synthetic graphite, nearly 95% of the growth comes from China.
“These high levels of supply concentration pose a risk to the speed of energy transitions, as they make supply chains and routes more vulnerable to disruption, whether from extreme weather, disputes commercial or geopolitical events. »
China’s global dominance in electric vehicles is a product of its huge domestic market and the subsidies offered to consumers to buy them, the report said. It found that 60% of all electric vehicles sold globally went to Chinese buyers last year.
Much of China’s success is due to the deployment of new technologies that have given electric vehicles much greater range and faster charging times without significantly increasing battery size. This helped overcome the “range anxiety” that has long dissuaded European motorists from switching to electric vehicles.
The IEA study highlighted Chinese dominance over a range of other minerals and related technologies critical to the energy transition. For example, 90% of the world’s supply of solar panels comes from China.
The country also dominates in the field of electrolyzers, used to make hydrogen from water. Wind turbines and associated infrastructure such as transformers and cabling – all of which rely on the same set of minerals – have shown the same trend.
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