China’s CATL, Nio deepen partnership to develop EV batteries with longer lifespans
Joint effort highlights urgency as industry – including 40 million EV owners – braces for costly replacements
The two companies said they were committed to finding solutions to an issue that could cost millions of EV users trillions of yuan to replace expired batteries.
CATL and Nio first announced plans to jointly develop longer-lifespan batteries in 2024.
“Batteries will become a big issue in eight to 10 years’ time,” William Li, CEO of Nio, told reporters in a media briefing. “We are under time pressure to find ways to tackle the problem.”
Li said owners of China’s existing 40 million electric cars would have to spend at least 60,000 yuan (US$8,585) each to buy new batteries after 2032 when the life cycle of current packs ended. That could amount to a total cost of as much as 3 trillion yuan, he added.
Li made the remarks as Nio, founded in 2014, reached another milestone as its 1 millionth car rolled off the production line on Tuesday. The Shanghai-based EV assembler, viewed as a Tesla challenger in mainland China, aimed to achieve annualised sales growth of 40 per cent to 50 per cent over the next decade, according to Li.