Chinese EV battery company Gotion High-Tech has announced an electric car battery with an estimated range of up to 1,000 kilometres, or 620 miles.
This is up to double the range of current popular EVs, which should help to stave off the battery anxiety of London EV owners not lucky enough to be able to install a home charger.
New technology from a Chinese company that wouldn’t trouble the top five global EV battery manufacturers, according to SNE Research, would not usually be of too much interest. However, Gotion High-Tech has a close relationship with Volkswagen Group that suggests this high-range battery tech could be seen in western production cars as early as 2024-2025, when the battery is slated to go into mass production.
Gotion High-Tech says its LMFP Astroinno L600 battery has been in development for 10 years, and is fit for up to 4,000 charge cycles, the company’s President of International Business, Dr Cheng Quian, says.
The Volkswagen Group has ordered this new battery for use in its cars, according to Investing, suggesting Gotion High-Tech could become a much bigger name in EV batteries in the future.
Car brands that sit under the Volkswagen Group banner, aside from Volkswagen itself, include Porsche, Seat and Audi.
The battery uses lithium iron manganese phosphate (LMFP) technology, and its cells provide an energy density of up to 240Wh/kg. Tesla’s most recent 4680 battery design delivers 244Wh/kg according to testing published by The Limiting Factor.
What is the most popular EV?
The ID.4 SUV is Volkswagen’s most popular electric car model at present. Its range is rated at up to 328 miles, or 527km.
A 1,000km real-world range is a far-off goal for most EV designs, but it is not an unfathomable one. The Mercedes Vision EQXX concept car was driven for 1,008km off a single charge, with some juice to spare according to Top Gear.
That car was specifically designed for ultra-long range, though, with an unusually light frame and low wind resistance shape.
Tesla’s longest-range car is the 2022 Model S sedan, which can reach 405 miles (651km).
However, it should not be assumed that just because a battery can deliver up to 1,000km range, the cars it is put in will deliver such range.
In 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed the company could have made a car capable of 600-mile range a year before, but chose not to.
“We could’ve made a 600-mile Model S 12 months ago, but that would’ve made the product worse in my opinion, as 99.9 per cent of time you’d be carrying unneeded battery mass, which makes acceleration, handling and efficiency worse. Even our 400+ mile range car is more than almost anyone will use,” Musk wrote on Twitter in March 2022.
Volkswagen announced its partnership with Gotion High-Tech in 2020, to develop technology to eventually be manufactured in an EV battery plant in Salzgitter, Germany. The construction of this factory in Salzgitter began in 2022, as announced on the Volkswagen website.
