By Kate Yuan

Chinese battery giant CATL through its Shanghai-based subsidiary signed an agreement with China’s EV startup NETA Auto (哪吒汽车) on Integrated Intelligent Chassis (CIIC) cooperation on January 10. The first model equipped with CIIC will be launched by the end of 2024, CATL announced.

According to the agreement, the two companies will carry out in-depth CIIC cooperation to help NETA’s car-making process faster, better and cheaper, and jointly explore more business models.

NETA Auto is a car brand owned by Chinese EV company Hozon Auto (合众汽车), which was founded in 2014. In 2018, Hozon officially released its new EV brand NETA.

CIIC is a highly integrated electric chassis with battery/electric drive as the core through CTC (Cell to Chassis) technology. This partnership will also accelerate the application of its CTC technology and related products.

CATL stated on January 11 that its Kirin batteries are expected to be mass-produced in the first quarter of 2023, and it is working on the industrialization of sodium-ion batteries in 2023.