Recently, Leapmotor released the intelligent electric CTC battery-chassis integration technology, and announced that the Leapmotor C01 model will be the first to apply this technology, becoming the world's first electric vehicle without an independent battery pack.
It is understood that CTC refers to the integrated design of the battery, chassis and lower body, simplifying product design and production processes, reducing the number of redundant structures and parts, and achieving higher structural efficiency. Industry insiders generally believe that CTC is becoming an industry outlet, and with the promotion of this technology, the pattern of automotive batteries will change.
At present, in order to simplify the complicated process of customization and assembly in the battery supply process and improve the problems such as the compressed space of pure electric vehicles, the automobile industry is constantly exploring battery integration and promoting the iterative upgrade of battery packaging technology.
Before the emergence of CTC technology, the power battery has transitioned from the standardized module structure of "cell-module-battery pack" to the CTP (module-free battery) structure, eliminating the need for module assembly and improving space utilization. But further integration is still possible.
The CTC technology released by Leapmotor this time cancels the battery pack design in the CTP, directly installs the cells or modules on the car chassis, and uses the body structure as the outer shell of the battery pack, which can better simplify the number of parts and production steps. , while reducing costs while increasing battery capacity and cruising range.
Leapmotor said that compared with the traditional solution, the battery layout space of CTC technology has increased by 14.5%, the battery life has increased by 10%, and the vertical space in the car has increased by 10 mm. What is more interesting is that the C01 model achieves a weight reduction of 15 kg and a 25% increase in the torsional stiffness of the body.
With the advantages of battery life and light weight, many car companies and battery manufacturers have expressed that they will take CTC as the future technical route. BYD's first model equipped with CTC technology, the Seal, will be launched within this year; Volvo also revealed that it is developing the next-generation CTC solution; CATL has also stated that it will launch a highly integrated CTC battery technology around 2025.
Although CTC technology has a good development prospect, its promotion and application still face a series of challenges, and the maintenance problem is the threshold that must be crossed. The traditional battery pack is mainly connected to the body through bolts, while the battery cell in the CTC structure is directly packaged with the chassis to form a high-strength whole. Once an electric vehicle is damaged in a traffic accident, it will inevitably "influence the whole body", increasing the difficulty of maintenance. with cost.
At present, the development of electric vehicles is faced with the problem of difficult and slow charging, and the battery swap technology can revive electric vehicles full of blood in just a few minutes, becoming a new choice for car owners. A car with CTC technology integrates the battery with the body, and the battery is difficult to disassemble and cannot be replaced. Therefore, there is a view in the industry that the development of CTC technology will have a certain impact on battery swapping technology.
Attracted by the advantages of cost reduction, high battery life, and light weight, more and more car companies have begun to deploy CTC technology, but the actual performance of this new technology needs to be verified after the models equipped with this technology are launched.
