Electric Aircraft Coming? CATL Joins COMAC to Form an Airline

Technology Author: Yunfeng Zhang Jul 25, 2023 03:56 PM (GMT+8)

EqualOcean inquired about the company's information and learned that Shangfeishidai (Chinese: 商飞时代), a joint venture between CATL (Chinese: 宁德时代), Shanghai Jiao Tong University Group (Chinese: 上海交大企业发展集团), and COMAC (Chinese: 中国商用飞机有限责任公司), has recently been established, but the shareholding ratio of each of the three companies has not yet been disclosed.

CATL

Shangfeishidai was established with a registered capital of CNY600 million, but the shareholding ratio of each of the three companies has not yet been disclosed. It is understood that the business scope of the company includes the design and production of civil aircraft components, the production of civil aircraft (engine, propeller), aviation operation support services, battery sales, etc.

Previously, at the 2023 Shanghai Auto Show site, CATL released condensed battery, the battery can not only be used in the automotive field but also can be used in the field of aviation, CATL chief scientist Wu Kai said, CATL is in the civil electric manned aircraft project cooperation development.

On April 19, CATL officially launched the cohesive state battery at Auto Shanghai 2023, the first time that CATL has launched a coherent state battery in China. According to CATL's chief scientist Wu Kai, the cohesive battery single energy density of up to 500Wh / kg, both high specific energy and high safety features, CATL is expected to have mass production capacity within this year.

At present, the mainstream power battery in the market is lithium ternary batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries, and condensed battery and their comparison with "higher" and "faster" characteristics, "higher" refers to the energy density, and "faster" refers to the energy density. Data show that the energy density of a ternary lithium battery is about 250Wh/kg, lithium iron phosphate battery energy density of about 180Wh/kg, the energy density of cohesive batteries compared to the two realized exponential improvement.

In addition to "higher" and "faster", condensed batteries are also safer, specially designed to bind the electrolyte in a polymer network structure, forming a gel state with excellent mechanical stability and ion transport properties, with better dynamics, safety and reliability.

Because of these characteristics, condensed batteries have the potential to be transported on aircraft. The aerospace industry has high requirements for batteries, which need higher energy density to power large airframes and be safer and more stable to adapt to the complex aviation environment.

Qi Haishen, president of ENF (Chinese: 特亿阳光), said in an interview that a significant trend in the global energy transition has arrived. From fossil energy to new energy transition market space is huge, power battery in addition to the application of new energy vehicles, other areas of application is also continuing to unfold, the future application in the aviation field will have great potential and space.