CATL plans 10,000 fast chargers in China
CATL is planning no less than to build “the world’s largest fast-charging network”, according to the company. To this end, CATL wants to build 10,000 super-fast charging stations in 100 Chinese cities at record speed by the end of next year. However, this will not be done alone, but with partners. The announcement comes in conjunction with CATL’s announcement of a strategic partnership with the Chinese charging network Star Charge.
The two companies intend to work together on research and development, co-branding of high-performance charging stations and the development of a corresponding charging network, among other things. The partners aim to provide an all-in-one charging solution that includes identification, management, charging, inspection, maintenance, billing and payment to enable efficient and premium super-fast charging for owners of electric cars and plug-in hybrids.
As a unicorn company for smart energy solutions in Asia and one of the three major charging station operators in China, Star Charge provides charging, discharging and energy storage equipment to customers worldwide and is also active in this field in Germany.
Based on their respective technological strengths and market resources, Star Charge and CATL will jointly promote the development of charging infrastructure and service innovations, especially super-fast charging, and further improve battery and vehicle safety through the development and application of battery charging and inspection integration technologies through their new partnership.
Star Charge has been ramping up corporate partnerships in multiple fields of late, ranging from a deal signed with eVTOL manufacturer Lilium in February to charging networks in China, which was signed in 2022. In 2020, a deal was signed with VinBus to help electrify Vietnam’s bus system.
For its part, CATL has steadily been expanding its battery lineup with increasingly technologically impressive products, such as a (small) commercial solid-state battery production planned for 2027, or an LFP battery presented a few days ago at Auto China that can handle a 1,000 km range. Interestingly enough, this is CATL’s first major charging initiative, although the company has been involved in multiple projects surrounding charging infrastructure, such as with Tesla recently.
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