A Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer has tested a new battery capable of powering a vehicle for more than 1,000 kilometers on a single charge.
According to Shanghai-based Nio, the next-generation battery will go into full production in April 2024, providing a greater range than any other electric or fuel-powered vehicle now on the market.
During a 14-hour live-stream on Sunday, Nio CEO William Li drove the all-electric ET7 vehicle 1,044km (649 miles) from Zhejiang province to Fujian province at an average speed of 84km/h. A further test of the breakthrough battery allegedly covered 1,145km, however this was not aired.
“The completion of this endurance challenge proves the product power of the 150kWh ultra-long endurance battery pack,” Mr Li tweeted on the Chinese social media site Weibo.
“This battery is currently the world’s highest energy density in mass production and has excellent safety performance.” More crucially, using the Nio battery exchange technology, all models on the market may be easily updated to 150kWh batteries.”
Nio takes an unconventional approach to vehicle charging, preferring a battery-swap system over putting the car into an outlet and waiting for the battery to recharge.
Because of a unique system integrated into the car, an empty battery can be switched for a fully charged battery in less than three minutes – approximately the time it takes to replenish a gasoline-powered vehicle.
Customers may purchase a car without a battery and then pay a monthly membership price to utilize Nio’s network batteries.
Nio’s president, Qin Lihong, said that purchasing the new battery outright would cost 298,000 yuan (£33,000) – nearly the price of a Tesla Model 3 – which is why the business supports for the usage of a leasing plan for its clients and the electric car industry as a whole.
“NIO started battery swap from the very beginning, it has been ready to open up its technologies and infrastructure to the entire industry,” Mr. Li told reporters.
“Similar to the cloud service provided by Internet companies, NIO’s Power Swap network and Power Cloud also followed the path along which we started with developing infrastructure and achieving a closed loop internally, and then open to others after validating the service across various scenarios.”
In November, the firm said that it has performed over 32 million battery replacements for consumers via its global network of over 2,000 Power Swap Stations.
