The Chinese manufacturing giant CATL, the biggest supplier of batteries for the world’s electric cars, said on Monday that it had made technological advances that would allow it to produce batteries that are cheaper, lighter, faster to recharge and more resistant to cold, while providing greater driving range.

世界上最大的电动汽车电池供应商、中国制造业巨头宁德时代周一表示，该公司在技术上取得了进展，能够生产出成本更低、重量更轻、充电更快、耐低温性能更强，而且续航里程更长的电池。

Most of the changes, which are a couple of years away from being widely available in new cars, could make electric cars more competitive in price and performance with gasoline-powered models.

这些技术改进大部分还需要数年时间才能广泛应用于新车，但它们可能会使电动汽车在价格和性能方面与燃油车相比更具竞争力。

CATL — its full name is the Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Ltd. — produces a third of the world’s electric car batteries and supplies 16 of the world’s biggest carmakers, including General Motors and the Shanghai factory of Tesla. Its main rivals for the global market are BYD in Shenzhen, China, which makes about one-sixth of the world’s E.V. batteries, almost entirely for its own cars, and South Korean and Japanese battery manufacturers.

宁德时代——全名为宁德时代新能源科技股份有限公司——生产的电动车电池占全球产量的三分之一，并为全球16家最大的汽车制造商供货，包括通用汽车和特斯拉的上海工厂。它在全球市场上的主要竞争对手是中国深圳的比亚迪，以及韩国和日本的电池制造商。比亚迪的电动汽车电池产量约占全球的六分之一，几乎全部用于自己的汽车。

CATL executives spoke at a news conference ahead of the Shanghai auto show, which starts on Wednesday. The choreographed event evoked the launch of a new car model.

宁德时代高管在周三开幕的上海车展前的新闻发布会上发表了讲话。这个精心设计的活动让人联想到新车型的发布会。

Batteries represent at least a third of the cost of an electric car, making CATL a critical player in the E.V. supply chain in China and beyond. Many automakers have been watching nervously whether CATL will someday try to establish its own car brand that could overshadow their own models.

电池至少占电动汽车成本的三分之一，这使宁德时代成为中国及其他地区电动汽车供应链中的关键参与者。许多汽车制造商一直在紧张地关注宁德时代是否有一天会试图创立自己的汽车品牌，让它们的车型黯然失色。

The biggest surprise by CATL was an announcement about auxiliary batteries for electric cars. The batteries would share space in the underbody of cars, where there is now only one large battery.

宁德时代带来的最大的惊喜是关于电动汽车辅助电池的消息。这种电池将与目前汽车底部唯一的一块大电池共用空间。

The auxiliary battery would be the first commercially available electric vehicle battery that would not use graphite as one of its poles, CATL said.

宁德时代表示，这种辅助电池将是首款不使用石墨作为电极的商用电动汽车电池。

Removing costly graphite will eventually make the batteries cheaper, after some initial costs, and will allow 60 percent more electricity to be squeezed in each cubic inch of the battery, said Gao Huan, CATL’s chief technology officer for electric cars in China. The extra energy density means that the car’s driving range can be greater, or the overall size of the battery can be reduced, leaving more room for the car’s passenger compartment.

宁德时代中国区电动汽车首席技术官高焕表示，在投入一些初始成本后，去除昂贵的石墨，电池的成本最终会降低，而且每立方英寸电池的发电量将增加60%。额外的能量密度意味着汽车的续航里程可以更长，或者电池的整体尺寸可以缩小，为汽车的乘客舱留下更多的空间。

The second battery also would provide backup in case one has trouble. That has become more important as self-driving features, which require uninterrupted electricity, become more common.

第二块电池也可以在其中一块出现故障时提供备用。随着需要不间断电力的自动驾驶功能变得越来越普遍，这一点变得更加重要。

Ouyang Chuying, co-president for research and development at CATL, said auxiliary batteries without graphite would be available in cars in two to three years and possibly sooner. He declined to say which automakers might be the first to use them.

宁德时代负责研发的联席总裁欧阳楚英表示，不含石墨的辅助电池将在两到三年内出现在汽车上，甚至可能更早。他拒绝透露哪些汽车制造商可能会率先使用这种技术。

But taking out the graphite has a downside, which is why CATL will remove it only for the auxiliary batteries. Batteries without graphite recharge more slowly, and cannot be recharged as many times as conventional E.V. batteries before they need to be replaced.

但是去掉石墨也有弊端，这就是宁德时代只在辅助电池上去掉石墨的原因。没有石墨的电池充电速度较慢，在需要更换之前，可充电次数也不如传统电动汽车电池多。

The auxiliary batteries are meant to be used less frequently, on longer drives after the main battery is exhausted.

辅助电池的使用频率较低，主要用于主电池耗尽后的长途驾驶。

CATL, which is based in Ningde, China, also said it had made more progress in the speed of charging main batteries. The company said its new system would allow an electric vehicle to be charged enough in five minutes to drive 520 kilometers, or 320 miles.

总部位于中国宁德的宁德时代还表示，它在主电池充电速度方面取得了更大进展。该公司表示，新系统将允许一辆电动汽车在五分钟内充满电，行驶520公里。

BYD and Huawei, a Chinese electronics giant that plays an ever-larger role in auto parts manufacturing, have also announced five-minute charging systems, known as supercharging.

比亚迪和华为也宣布了五分钟充电系统，即所谓的“超级充电”。华为是一家中国电子巨头，在汽车零部件制造领域发挥着越来越大的作用。

CATL also said it would start selling sodium-ion batteries, which can retain over 90 percent of their charge even at a temperature of 40 degrees below zero, for use in cars and trucks with internal combustion engines. The sodium batteries could be used by automakers to replace conventional lead-acid batteries, which go dead in very cold weather, and in some electric cars.

宁德时代还表示，将开始销售钠离子电池，这种电池即使在零下40度的温度下也能保有90%以上的电量，可用于搭载内燃机的汽车和卡车。钠电池可以被汽车制造商用来取代传统的铅酸电池，这种电池在非常寒冷的天气下会失效，部分电动汽车也可以使用这种电池。

Mr. Ouyang said that the electricity of these sodium batteries would be compatible with the electrical systems of existing gasoline-powered cars, but that the new batteries might not fit in the same space.

欧阳楚英称，这些钠电池的电力将与现有燃油车的电力系统兼容，但新电池可能无法安装在同一空间。

CATL said its first customer for sodium-ion batteries would be freight trucks from First Auto Works, an automaker in Changchun, in China’s far northeast, where temperatures frequently fall well below zero. Developing sodium-ion batteries has been a priority for the Chinese electric car industry because the country’s northern provinces, bordering Mongolia and Russia’s Siberia, have bitterly cold temperatures in winter.

宁德时代表示，其钠离子电池的第一个客户将是一汽解放的货运卡车。一汽解放位于中国东北城市长春，那里的气温经常远低于零度。开发钠离子电池一直是中国电动汽车行业的当务之急，因为与蒙古和俄罗斯西伯利亚接壤的中国北方省份冬季气温极低。

In interviews last autumn, car owners in Urumqi, in the far northwest of China, drivers said cold weather was why they would not consider buying electric cars.

在去年秋天对中国西北偏远城市乌鲁木齐的一些车主的采访中，司机们表示，寒冷的天气是他们不考虑购买电动汽车的原因。

Battery makers have been working on sodium-ion batteries for many years, but the United States may have a long-term advantage in the technology. Almost all of the world’s naturally occurring geological deposits of soda ash, the raw material for sodium-ion batteries, are in southwestern Wyoming.

电池制造商多年来一直在研究钠离子电池，但美国可能在这项技术上拥有长期优势。钠离子电池的原材料——纯碱的天然地质矿藏几乎全部位于怀俄明州西南部。

CATL showed a video of its sodium-ion batteries undergoing stress tests, such as being punctured with a nail or power drill or even cut in half with a power saw, without catching fire or exploding. Just five years ago, CATL had argued that nail tests were unrealistic and that batteries should not be expected to withstand them.

宁德时代发布了一段钠离子电池承受压力测试的视频，比如被钉子或电钻刺穿，甚至被电锯切成两半，但电池都没有起火或爆炸。就在五年前，宁德时代还曾认为，钉子测试是不现实的，电池不应该承受这种测试。