CATL’s new Tianxing-B (Tectrans B) battery has been developed specifically for electric buses. It has an energy density of 175 Wh/kg, which is the highest energy density in the bus industry, company claims. Battery service life is 15 years, and 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles).
Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) revealed the new battery during the online conference on Friday evening. Tianxing-B will have a warranty of 10 years or 1 million kilometers (620,000 miles).
Thanks to the IP69 waterproof rating, the battery can handle being underwater for up to 72 hours.
CATL plans to deploy the new Tianxing-B battery across 80 different bus models and has already established partnerships with 13 customers, including Dongfeng, Golden Dragon, and Yutong Bus.
As CATL uses different English names for the Tianxing-B battery, sometimes it is refered as the Tianxing Bus Edition or Tianxing B-series. The brand itself was previously called Tianxing, however at recent product launch event in Germany, CATL called it Tectrans.
Tianxing is a CATL’s brand for EV batteries dedicated to commercial vehicles. The new brand was launched on July 4. The first product under the Tianxing brand was the Tianxing-L battery dedicated to Light commercial vehicles. The long-range edition of Tianxing-L offers 200 kWh capacity, 200 Wh/kg energy density, and an 8-year or 800,000 km warranty. It also supports 4C fast charging, enabling battery refilling of 60% SoC in 12 minutes.
CATL has nearly 50% market share in EV battery sales in 2024 (January-August) in China. Their batteries also power more than 385,000 buses globally, the company says.
CATL announced that mass production of the Tianxing-B battery will start soon without providing additional details.
