CATL Launches Super Hybrid “Xiaoyao” Battery: Over 400km Range with 4C Fast Charging Capability

2025-06-11 | Calvin

On October 24th, CATL unveiled in Beijing the world's first hybrid battery capable of over 400km pure electric range with 4C ultra-fast charging - the Xiaoyao Super Hybrid Battery. This technological breakthrough establishes a new benchmark for hybrid batteries.

Redefining Hybrid Battery Standards

The Xiaoyao Super Hybrid Battery achieves multiple technological innovations:

1. Pure Electric Range Exceeding 400km

Traditional hybrid vehicles' limited pure electric range stems from constrained battery space and material limitations, resulting in restricted capacity and low lithium-ion transmission efficiency. The Xiaoyao battery employs cathode material surface modification technology combined with an innovative high-voltage electrolyte formula, creating a "nanoscale protective layer" on the material surface that reduces side reactions and expands energy usage boundaries.

By introducing highly active excited-state particles into cathode materials, the battery establishes dedicated high-speed channels for lithium ions, dramatically improving transmission efficiency and overcoming diffusion bottlenecks. This breakthrough significantly increases energy density, enabling pure electric range to surpass 400km.

Leveraging deep understanding of battery mechanisms and adaptive calculations based on massive data and user behavior patterns, CATL has developed high-performance BMS precision algorithms. Validated through industry-leading customer usage scenarios and iterative optimization, these algorithms improve SOC accuracy by 40% and increase pure electric mode energy utilization by over 10%, solving range prediction inaccuracies caused by SOC miscalculations.

2. 4C Ultra-Fast Charging: 280km Range in 10 Minutes

Traditional hybrid vehicles sacrifice charging capability by prioritizing power output with power-oriented batteries, while complex charging management systems and platform limitations further restrict fast-charging performance.

Building on the mass production of ultra-fast charging technologies in CATL's Kirin and Shenxing batteries, the company has now adapted 4C ultra-fast charging technology to the Xiaoyao battery, achieving "280km range with 10-minute charging."

The cathode utilizes fast-ion conductor coating technology to create unobstructed "ETC lanes" for lithium ions, while transition metal doping enhances the conductivity of lithium iron phosphate. The anode combines second-generation fast-charging graphite with novel nano-coating technology to improve lithium-ion desolvation and minimize resistance during embedding.

A multi-gradient layered electrode design features high porosity upper layers and high-density lower structures, resolving the conflict between lithium-ion deintercalation speed and energy density. This ensures both high-power performance and ultra-fast charging without compromising range.

The new ultra-high conductivity electrolyte formula reduces viscosity and enhances lithium-ion desolvation, while optimized ultra-thin SEI membranes minimize resistance for smoother lithium-ion penetration.

3. Stable Power Output Without Range Anxiety

In hybrid vehicles, power batteries must coordinate with range extenders and engines for power output. At low charge levels, reduced battery voltage often causes power output decline, affecting vehicle performance.

CATL has specifically addressed low-SOC power output limitations, significantly improving pure electric efficiency in low-charge conditions to maintain stable power output even when depleted.

The cathode electrode employs highly active excited-state particle doping to increase surface active sites and create more rapid lithium-ion diffusion channels, solving slow diffusion issues at low SOC states and improving low-SOC power output by over 50%.

Through battery charge-discharge polarization modeling and precise future discharge capacity prediction, CATL has developed multi-level power prediction control strategies that enhance hybrid vehicle power performance by an additional 20%.

4. Lithium-Sodium Hybrid Battery System for -40°C Operation

Potential EV buyers in northern regions worry about winter temperatures severely impacting battery performance, reducing range and charging efficiency.

Utilizing CATL's pioneering AB battery system integration technology, the Xiaoyao battery combines sodium and lithium batteries in specific ratios and configurations (series/parallel) to improve low-temperature range by 5%. Combined with CATL's second-generation extreme cold electrolyte that reduces ion transport resistance and improves conductivity by over 30%, the battery achieves breakthrough performance: operation at -40°C, charging capability at -30°C, and strong power output at -20°C.

The differing chemical characteristics of lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries present significant challenges for battery design and management, particularly regarding self-discharge, DC internal resistance growth, and health degradation over their lifecycles.

To address performance variations between lithium and sodium batteries in low temperatures, CATL developed an all-climate intelligent balanced thermal management system that enables targeted zone management for different materials, dynamically matching battery states to improve consistency. This solves issues like low voltage or non-operation caused by extreme cold while ensuring stable power output.

Using sodium ions as precise SOC monitoring references to calibrate lithium-ion battery charge levels improves overall system control accuracy by 30%, equivalent to adding over 10km to pure electric range.

Market Applications

The Xiaoyao battery has already been adopted by several automakers including Li Auto, Avatr, Deepal, Qiyuan, and Neta. By 2025, nearly 30 hybrid models from brands like Geely, Chery, GAC, and Voyah will be equipped with CATL's Xiaoyao Super Hybrid Battery.

With CATL's world-leading extreme manufacturing capabilities, the Xiaoyao battery can achieve rapid mass production and vehicle integration, helping automakers deliver more competitive hybrid models quickly and with high quality to lead the evolving hybrid market.