By Greg Gao

CATL, the biggest EV lithium-ion battery manufacturer in the world, has been nominated as the supplier of the cylindrical cells for the German carmaker BMW from 2025, Chinese media reports say. 

BMW plans to launch a dedicated EV platform Neue KlaSSe in 2025 and use cylindrical batteries in new EV models, rather than the more common prismatic cells powering BMW’s EVs.

Oliver Zipse, chairman of BMW Group, revealed at BMW’s annual shareholders meeting that the company’s electric vehicles based on the new platform are expected to save 30% costs due to the use of the cylindrical cells. Neue KlaSSe platform is expected to bring more power output with new battery specifications for BMW’s EVs.

He also added that the EVs built on Neue Klasse platform will gain the same profit as BMW’s traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars.

Earlier this month CATL also announced that it reached an agreement with European bus manufacturer Solaris to supply lithium iron phosphate batteries with CTP (Cell-to-Pack) technology for Solaris’ buses.