Xiaomi hybrid vehicle with 80 kWh CATL battery set to blur the lines between electric and gas cars

After the market for electric vehicles softened as subsidies started to dry out, automakers are increasingly turning back to combustion engines by vowing to increase the share of hybrid vehicles in their product mix.

Toyota was the main proponent of a slower and steady approach to vehicle electrification, and it feels vindicated with a drastic increase in gross profits last year when the pace of EV demand started to slow and buyers flocked to hybrids. Most other automakers are also postponing their portfolio electrification plans, and some like GM are now actively lobbying for the removal of clean vehicle mandates and lowering emission standards.

Even in China, the leading electric vehicle market, a growing trend of the so-called Extended Range Electric Vehicle (EREV) has emerged. These are plug-in hybrid cars with a small gas engine that serves as an electricity generator to charge the battery, and offer the best of both worlds when it comes to acceleration and range.

The world's largest EV battery maker has been catering to this increasingly popular EREV niche by launching a 60 kWh Freevoy battery for hybrids that it said allows 400 km (248 miles) of pure electric range. Given that the average battery size in hybrids sits at less than 30 kWh, CATL is evidently targeting the premium EREV market and there are already vehicles on the market using its Freevoy pack that offer more than 1,000 km of range.

CATL will reportedly go a step further and has developed a nickel battery with the whopping 80 kWh capacity - as large as in many mainstream EVs - targeting extended-range vehicles. The pack will be mass-produced next year and go into numerous SUVs and MPVs, including a 2026 Xiaomi EREV that has been rumored for a while, but is yet to be announced.

The new 80 kWh CATL battery for hybrids will reportedly allow them to have more than 500 km of pure electric range. It also addresses the weight problem with EREVs, some of which are closing in on the 3-ton mark thanks to the large battery and ICE unit inside.

Ternary batteries with high nickel content offer much higher energy density than the LFP packs that are proliferating in everything from popular Anker power stations to hybrid vehicles. With the return to higher nickel content, the new CATL pack doesn't need to stack more cells and increase the weight of the vehicle to achieve the range extension advertised.