CATL designs safe, modular chassis platform for electric vehicles

Safety in electromobility CATL designs safe, modular chassis platform for electric vehicles

2025-01-07 From Susanne Braun | Translated by AI 2 min Reading Time

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With the Bedrock Chassis, battery manufacturer CATL has developed a chassis especially for electric vehicles, which is designed to protect the battery in particular in such a way that neither fires nor explosions occur at impact speeds of up to 120 km/h (approx. 75 mph). This could mean a new level of safety for electric vehicles. This could mean a new level of safety for electromobility.

The developers at CATL drove the Bedrock chassis with a body at 120 km/h (approx. 75 mph) against a wall and a pillar.(Image: CATL) — The developers at CATL drove the Bedrock chassis with a body at 120 km/h (approx. 75 mph) against a wall and a pillar.
(Image: CATL)

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) presented its own modular chassis platform Bedrock before the end of the year. This is a skateboard chassis which, according to the manufacturer, is designed to meet the challenges of electromobility and make it safer.

The developers at CATL have proven the high resistance of the chassis with several crash tests. Impact tests at a speed of 120 km/h (approx. 75 mph) head-on against a wall and a pillar resulted in neither explosions nor fires in the battery—even after the vehicle had been stationary for twelve hours. This is made possible, among other things, by the "three-dimensional biomimetic turtle shell structure, in which the body and the frame of the energy unit are integrated and closely connected to provide the energy unit with robust protection", as CATL's engineers point out. An impact at 120 km/h (75 mph) is roughly equivalent to a fall from a building 56 meters high.

Protection for the battery, platform for EVs

Among other materials, hot-formed steel with a strength of 2,000 MPa and aluminum alloys with a strength of 600 MPa were used for the chassis. As the video of the crash test shows, no dummies were used in the tests. The developers at CATL emphasize that the chassis would be able to absorb around 85 percent of the collision energy—which of course protects the occupants, but primarily the electric vehicle's battery.

The focus of the Bedrock platform is on protecting the battery, as can be seen from the following: "Immediate disconnection of the high-voltage circuit is achieved within 0.01 seconds of the impact, and discharge of the remaining high-voltage energy in the vehicle within 0.2 seconds."

Bedrock is modular and detached from the car body, and can be used by e-vehicle manufacturers to reduce the design phase for a new model. CATL predicts that the time to mass production of a model will be reduced to 12 to 18 months. The chassis supports mechanical decoupling, software decoupling and EE decoupling, enabling intelligent driving from L3 to L4. At the launch event of the Bedrock chassis, those responsible at car manufacturer AVATR emphasized their interest in intensifying their work with Bedrock by means of a letter of intent. (sb)

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Date: 08.12.2025

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