This is the chassis that can withstand an impact at 120 km/h

The name CATL may not ring a bell for many, but it will surely do so in the coming years. This is a Chinese company specialising in the development of batteries, chassis and platforms for electric vehicles that has recently been working on the development of some innovative technologies for the automotive sector, such as CTP electric platforms (CTPs).cell to pack) and CTC (cell to chassis).

CTP eliminates the traditional battery module and allows its cells to be integrated directly into the pack without the need for an intermediate module, thus improving its efficiency, reducing its weight and optimizing its density. CTC goes one step further and integrates the battery cells directly into the vehicle chassis, allowing for greater efficiency and greater structural rigidity. This not only optimizes the space it occupies, but also improves safety, since the battery becomes part of the vehicle itself and helps absorb impacts in the event of a collision. And this is precisely what we want to talk about.

Bedrock chassis, or how to withstand an impact at 120 km/h

Recently, CATL has presented its Bedrock Chassis, a skateboard-type CTC chassis that, thanks to the disconnection between the chassis and the upper body, is capable of absorbing 85% of the energy of a collision, compared to the 60% absorbed by traditional chassis. It seems impossible, but it is not. In fact, CATL wanted to carry out an extreme crash test: crash a vehicle with this chassis into a wall at 120 km/h and into a metal pole at the same speed. And the results are very astonishing.

Having chosen such a high speed (normally the crash tests (The usual crashes are carried out at speeds of between 50 and 64 km/h) is no coincidence: according to CATL, from 50 km/h onwards, every km/h that we increase the speed increases the risk of injury to the occupants by 3%, and for every 5 km/h the risk doubles. In other words, in a crash that occurs at around 56 km/h, the collision energy equivalent to a fall from a 12-metre high building is generated. In contrast, in the same crash but at 120 km/h, the energy generated is 4.6 times greater, equivalent to a fall from a height of 56 metres.

As you can see in the video, the CATL chassis can not only withstand an impact at 120 km/h without fire, explosion or significant damage to the battery pack, but can also withstand a crash at the same speed against a metal pole. This is even more impressive, since in this case the impact area is only 1/6 of that of a full frontal impact. In addition, at 120 km/h the pressure exerted by this object on the chassis is 21 times greater than that recorded in a traditional frontal crash at 56 km/h.

But that's not all. The CATL Bedrock chassis features a system that instantly disconnects the high-voltage battery circuit in 0.01 seconds in the event of an impact and completes the discharge of residual high-voltage energy in the vehicle in 0.2 seconds, which sets a new record in the industry. It is an innovative chassis that is capable of integrating a battery pack that is not only very well protected, but will theoretically allow vehicles equipped with them to exceed 1,000 kilometers of autonomy.

For now, the first manufacturer to use this new Bedrock chassis will be AVATR, a Chinese luxury vehicle brand. However, the future of both CATL and this new element is promising, and surely other electric vehicle manufacturers will not want to waste it, we will see if even outside of China.