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China EV battery race: Tesla’s rivals join NIO in efforts to achieve 1,000km driving range on single charge target
- NIO was the first to put the 1,000km range on its ET7 sedan specification, to be fitted with a 150kWh solid-state battery when it goes into production in 2022
- Chinese partners of General Motors, Toyota and Honda have also announced efforts to develop cutting-edge batteries that can go the distance
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China’s electric car assemblers and battery producers are setting a new goalpost in their battle for supremacy in the world’s largest vehicle market: a driving range of up to 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) on a single charge.
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Their new weapon is the solid-state battery, deemed a better option because the electricity from solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte is safer, more reliable and more efficient than the liquid or polymer gel electrolytes found in existing lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries.
“A battery that can power for 1,000km on a single charge will be of great significance to the EV segment,” said Wang Bin, a Credit Suisse analyst. “Range anxiety has long been a stumbling block to the rise of EVs, and the industry now sees a ray of hope from these new batteries.”
NIO, the Beijing-based challenger to Tesla, was the first to put the 1,000km range on its product specification, announcing on January 9 that the Extended Edition of its ET7 sedan would be fitted with a 150 kilowatt-hour (kWh) solid-state battery that can go the distance on a single charge when it goes into production in 2022.
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