Chinese battery manufacturing giant CATL has this week unveiled its new generation of commercial vehicle battery, the Tectrans II, which it says supports up to 1,000 kilometres of range for heavy-duty trucks as well as flexible switching between charging and battery swapping.
The new Tectrans II was unveiled at IAA Transportation 2026 in Hanover, Germany, and comes a couple of months after local media first reported the battery’s existence.
“Commercial vehicle electrification is emerging as the third wave of the global energy transition,” said Akin Li, executive president of CATL Overseas Business.
“Across products, energy, services and ecosystem, CATL is poised to work with partners around the world to catch this third wave.”
Tectrans II has been built as a modular platform, specifically designed for diverse commercial vehicle applications and operating requirements.
In reality, this means that Tectrans II batteries can be configured in different sized battery packs, meet different energy capacity and payload requirements, is compatible with both e-axle and central-drive architectures, and supports flexible switching between charging and battery swapping.
The new Tectrans II battery supports a maximum driving range of up to 1,000 km, and can charge to 80 per cent in just 25 minutes using megawatt-level fast charging.
CATL has also standardised external dimensions, electrical interfaces, and communication protocols, allowing battery technologies and park designs to evolve as necessary. This means the batteries can work with both existing and new vehicle models without requiring major changes to the vehicle’s platform.
The modular design chosen by CATL also helps OEMs to shorten vehicle development cycles by up to half and reduce research and development costs by between 60 to 70 per cent, resulting in faster model launches and lower adaptation costs.
Increased gravimetric energy density of 170 Watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) are around 13 per cent above the industry average, enabling vehicles to carry approximately 0.6 tonnes of additional payload at the same battery capacity.
The Tectrans II also boasts the world’s first full-tab low-impedance design, enabling 96 per cent system round-trip efficiency (RTE) and helping to reduce charging losses while delivering more usable energy for daily operations.
The battery has also been engineered for a 12-year, 1.5-million-kilometre service life while maintaining 70 per cent capacity retention. Similarly, the battery also boasts robust physical protection from impacts and corrosion, a maintenance-friendly design, and three levels of system redundancy including architecture redundancy, precise fault diagnosis, and cybersecurity protection.
