CATL, the world’s leading battery manufacturer, has officially launched the Bedrock Chassis, the world’s first ultra-safe skateboard chassis, setting a new benchmark in automotive safety. The innovative chassis, which withstood a 120 km/h frontal impact without catching fire or exploding, promises to redefine the standards for intelligent chassis safety and usher in a new era of ultra-safe transportation.
Unprecedented Safety Performance
The Bedrock Chassis, built with CATL’s proprietary Cell-to-Chassis integration technology, integrates the battery cells directly into the chassis, providing a unified structural design that enhances both rigidity and impact resistance. This innovative design allows the chassis to absorb up to 85% of collision energy, significantly outperforming traditional chassis systems, which typically absorb around 60%.
What sets the Bedrock Chassis apart is its performance in extreme safety tests. The chassis successfully passed the world’s first 120 km/h frontal central pole impact test, a test widely regarded as the ultimate measure of vehicle safety. In this test, the chassis endured the collision—equivalent to a 56-meter-high building drop—without triggering a fire, explosion, or thermal runaway. This achievement has shattered the notion that traditional gasoline-powered vehicles are inherently safer than new energy vehicles (NEVs).
By comparison, the standard C-NCAP (China New Car Assessment Program) frontal crash test is conducted at just 56 km/h, representing the energy of a 12-meter fall. The new 120 km/h test, which simulates impacts with non-standard objects such as power poles or large trees, generates 21 times the pressure per unit area of a standard crash test, highlighting the extraordinary resilience of the Bedrock Chassis.
Three Technological Breakthroughs for Superior Safety
CATL’s Bedrock Chassis incorporates several cutting-edge technologies, offering unprecedented protection in all scenarios and speed ranges. The chassis features:
- Biomimetic Tortoise Shell Structure – Inspired by nature’s strongest defensive structures, this design integrates the body and energy unit framework to provide indestructible protection for the vehicle’s core components.
- Aircraft Carrier-grade Arresting Structure – This structure dissipates impact forces across multiple pathways, significantly reducing the speed and depth of intrusions into the cabin, ensuring passenger safety in high-impact crashes.
- Advanced Materials and Design – The chassis utilizes submarine-grade hot-formed steel (2000MPa) and aerospace-grade aluminum alloys (600MPa), enhancing rigidity and resilience against extreme forces. This combination of materials ensures that the chassis can withstand even the most violent crashes without compromising structural integrity.
Furthermore, the chassis integrates high-ductility energy-absorbing insulation films and NP technology for ultra-safe battery cell design. It also features a high-voltage disconnection system that can cut off electrical circuits in just 0.01 seconds and discharge residual high-voltage energy within 0.2 seconds, setting a new industry record.
CATL subjected the chassis to rigorous tests, including high-speed sled impacts at 60 km/h and 90-degree bending tests, all of which demonstrated that the battery cells did not catch fire or explode, further elevating the industry’s safety standards.
Opening a New Era of Customization and Speed in Vehicle Production
The launch of the Bedrock Chassis not only raises the bar for vehicle safety but also accelerates the transition to modular, personalized, and intelligent automotive design. CATL’s groundbreaking Cell-to-Chassis (CTC) technology and decoupling of the chassis from the vehicle’s upper body enhance flexibility, allowing for easier adaptation across different vehicle models.
With its scalable software and hardware architecture and standardized interfaces, the Bedrock Chassis enables automakers to quickly develop and manufacture vehicles, cutting the traditional 36-month development cycle to just 12 to 18 months. This transformation will help drive faster product iteration and customization across the automotive industry, unlocking a trillion-yuan market.
The chassis’ modular design allows for “one chassis, multiple vehicle models”, which increases development efficiency and reduces costs. In terms of intelligence, the Bedrock Chassis is designed to support L3 to L4 intelligent driving capabilities, with mechanical decoupling, software decoupling, and EE decoupling technologies to enhance adaptability and promote collaboration with smart vehicle applications.
Partnerships and Future Innovation
At the launch ceremony, AVATR, the first automaker to adopt the Bedrock Chassis, signed an agreement with CAIT-SH, CATL’s skateboard chassis arm, to deepen their cooperation in creating a safer and higher-quality travel experience for users. The partnership marks a significant milestone in CATL’s vision to revolutionize transportation safety through continuous technological innovation.
Looking Ahead, CATL is committed to further pushing the boundaries of automotive safety, collaborating with industry partners to build a secure ecosystem for electric vehicle batteries and vehicles, ultimately safeguarding users’ safety in every scenario.
With the introduction of the Bedrock Chassis, CATL has not only redefined the future of vehicle safety but also positioned itself as a leader in the next generation of intelligent, customizable, and ultra-safe automotive solutions.
