2024 Beijing Auto Show, CATL CIIC integrated intelligent chassis debuts

On April 25, at the 2024 Beijing International Auto Show, CATL's CIIC integrated intelligent chassis product (also known as the "skateboard chassis") made its first public appearance. According to the official introduction, the core features of the skateboard chassis are "upper and lower decoupling, high integration, and openness to the outside world". Through the scalable software and hardware architecture and standardized interface design, a set of chassis architecture can be realized, and a variety of vehicle models can be realized.

As an independent self-driving mobile energy unit, CIIC integrated intelligent chassis undertakes three functions: sports center, energy center, and data center. The overall design is battery-centric and adopts CTC (Cell to chassis) technology. The battery cells are directly integrated into the chassis, making the chassis group more efficient, achieving a range of over 1,000 kilometers, or achieving battery chemical system degradation at the same range, supporting different battery categories and battery replacement solutions such as Kirin batteries and Shenxing batteries.

Image source: CATL

In terms of overall product form, the CIIC integrated chassis can highly integrate subsystems such as batteries, electric drives, and thermal management into the chassis, achieving deep integration of the three-electric system, improving system efficiency while saving more space for the upper body. At the same time, it can also absorb 80% of the vehicle collision energy, reduce the correlation between styling design and safety, and make the vehicle design more free.

CATL said that the CIIC integrated intelligent chassis is matched with a rich set of Toolkits solution kits, and customers can flexibly select subsystem solutions based on different vehicle product definitions and functional requirements.

In addition, the CIIC integrated intelligent chassis displayed this time is equipped with wire control braking, wire control steering, rear wheel steering, electronic suspension, four-wheel drive control and other solutions independently developed by Contemporary Intelligent, a subsidiary of CATL. Officials claim that the wire control braking (EPHB-Electric Pedal Hydraulic Braking) system is the first truly physically decoupled hydraulic solution in the industry, which eliminates the mechanical connection between the brake pedal and the electronic control unit, while adding software redundancy strategies, safety monitoring, and fault handling mechanisms to ensure system safety and robustness, and is an important technical breakthrough in achieving complete decoupling of the upper and lower bodies.

It is worth noting that CATL started its layout in the skateboard chassis field as early as 6 years ago.

In 2018, CATL initiated a CTC technology project within the group. In July 2021, it established Contemporary Intelligence to implement industrialization. The subsidiary focuses on providing CIIC integrated intelligent chassis products and technical services with CTC battery technology as the core. It is reported that the Contemporary Intelligence team now has more than 600 people, led by Yang Hanbing, former president of Schaeffler Greater China Automotive Technology Division. In January 2023, Contemporary Intelligence signed a contract with the Management Committee of Yichun Economic and Technological Development Zone in Jiangxi Province to build the first skateboard chassis production base in Yichun.

In March this year, Yang Hanbing, managing director of CATL, revealed that CATL's first skateboard chassis product based on lithium iron phosphate batteries will be mass-produced in the second half of this year.