CATL, China's largest automotive lithium-ion battery maker, may be the supplier of Nio's solid-state battery, China Securities Journal said Monday, citing an unnamed source.

Later cls.cn cited sources familiar with the matter as saying they confirmed that Nio's solid-state battery supplier is CATL.

At the Nio Day held on January 9, Nio unveiled its 150kWh solid-state battery, which can achieve 360Wh/kg ultra-high energy density. The new battery pack will be delivered in the fourth quarter of 2022.

William Li Bin, founder and chairman of Nio, said in an interview on January 10 that the supplier of Nio's solid-state batteries is not convenient to disclose.

Li said Nio has a very close working relationship with solid-state battery suppliers and the one that chose is certainly the leading company in the industry. "We will do our best to accelerate mass production, and we choose the best, most advanced technology that can be mass produced."

When China Securities Journal asked CATL for confirmation, the company said it would not comment.

As an industry leader, CATL already has a supply relationship with Nio.

In May 2020, CATL Chairman Zeng Yuqun revealed that CATL continues to invest in cutting-edge research and product development for technologies such as solid-state batteries. A true solid-state battery requires lithium metal as the negative electrode so that energy density can be increased. Current automotive-grade solid-state batteries are not as good as lithium-ion batteries in terms of energy density.

One potential partner for Nio's 150 kWh solid-state battery is Jiangsu Kunshan-based ChingTao Energy, 36kr said last week, adding that this information was confirmed by a source inside ChingTao.

In a public presentation last October, QingTao general manager Li Zheng mentioned that the company's solid-state battery technology is based on the oxide technology route and that it has already been working with BAIC and Hozon Auto, among others, on vehicle installation tests.

He said at the time that the energy density of a single battery could reach 300Whkg, and that the product to be installed in vehicles in 2021 was expected to reach 350Whkg, and that "the stage of producing Class A samples has now begun.