Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) and Arun Plus Company Limited (Arun Plus) recently reached an agreement on CTP (cell-to-pack) cooperation in Thailand to serve local EV manufacturers, enhancing the potential for Thailand to become the battery production hub of ASEAN.

CATL will supply a CTP production line to Arun Plus, and share with Arun Plus the knowledge and technologies of CTP battery pack manufacturing.

Arun Plus is a wholly owned subsidiary of PTT Public Company Limited (PTT), Thailand's national oil company with a well-established infrastructure throughout the country. In November 2022, Arun Plus set up a subsidiary to manufacture EVs to serve the rising demand in the region.

This partnership will help empower Arun Plus's EV production capability, leading to the next step of building an EV battery ecosystem in Thailand and ASEAN in the future.

The cooperation also marks another important step for CATL’s global footprint as it explores diverse forms of cooperation in regional markets, thus accelerating e-mobility and energy transition of the world.

In June 2022, CATL launched CTP 3.0 Qilin, the third generation of its CTP technology. (Earlier post.) Qilin features a volume utilization efficiency of 72% and an energy density of up to 255 Wh/kg, it achieves the highest integration level worldwide so far CATL claims.

In the CTP 3.0 battery, the internal crossbeam, liquid-cooling plate and thermal pad have been integrated into a multifunctional elastic interlayer. It also features built-in micron bridges inside the interlayer, which flexibly accommodate the changes inside the cell, improving the battery reliability throughout its full life cycle.

The integrated energy unit, which is composed of the cell and the multifunctional elastic interlayer, builds a more stable load bearing structure perpendicular to the driving direction, thus enhancing the shock and vibration resistance of the battery pack.

By placing liquid cooling functional parts between adjacent cells, the trailblazing large-surface cell cooling technology increases the heat transfer area by four times, cuts thermal control time in half, and supports a hot start in 5 minutes and fast charging in 10 minutes. It enables the cell to cool down rapidly in extreme circumstances, effectively preventing abnormal thermal conduction among cells. Moreover, it has achieved thermal stability and thermal safety for all chemical systems, making it compatible with materials with higher energy density.

The CTP 3.0 battery can increase the energy density to 255Wh/kg for ternary battery systems, and 160Wh/kg for LFP battery systems. With the same chemical system and the same pack size, it can deliver 13% more power than the 4680 battery, accomplishing an all-round improvement in range, fast-charging, safety, service life, efficiency and low-temperature performance, CATL says.