Chinese e-car producer Zeekr launches battery at record charging speed of 5.5 C

The Chinese electric car manufacturer Zeekr claims to have increased the charging rate of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries to 5.5 C, a level never before achieved in series production. The company reports that the Zeekr 007 electric car equipped with these batteries can be charged from ten to 80 percent in 10.5 minutes under ideal conditions. The aim is to take away customers' range anxiety. The car has already been announced. The Zeekr X model based on the Smart is already available in this country.

With the battery management system specially adapted to the cell chemistry and the conditions in the battery, the charging performance should remain high even at low temperatures. At minus 10 degrees Celsius, the ideal charging time is still 30 minutes from ten to 80 percent State of Charge (SOC). The speed is therefore higher than that of today's conventional nickel-cobalt-manganese batteries.

Own charging network in China

Zeekr points out that this can only be achieved at correspondingly powerful 800-volt charging stations, such as those offered by Zeekr under the name "V3". Zeekr already has more than 500 of these ultra-fast charging stations with over 2700 charging points in operation in China. The network is set to grow to 1000 by 2024 and to over 10,000 stations with the option of 800-volt charging by 2026.

The C-rate is a benchmark for comparing the charging performance of batteries of different sizes. Also known as the C coefficient, it describes the current strength with which a battery is charged or discharged. It always refers to the maximum energy content. 1C means that complete charging or discharging takes one hour. Most modern electric cars exceed this value. The common definition of the C-rate in practice refers to 75 percent of the charging stroke and is usually extrapolated to the complete process. A VW ID.3 with a 58 kWh battery would therefore have a C-rate of 1.3.

(fpi)