New electric-car battery from Tesla supplier claims 1000km driving range

Chinese electric-car battery giant CATL has unveiled a new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) unit claimed to be capable of providing vehicles with a driving range of up to 1000km on a single charge.

CATL is the world's largest electric vehicle battery maker and currently supplies power units for Tesla, Ford, Volvo and Polestar, among others.

LFP batteries are cheaper to build than the nickel manganese cobalt units in most electric cars, and can be charged to 100 per cent more frequently without damaging the cells, but are generally not as energy dense, cannot charge as quickly, and do not perform as well in cold weather.

Revealed during last week's 2024 Beijing motor show, the 'Shenxing Plus' battery eclipses CATL's existing Shenxing battery which already claims up to 700km of driving range in certain vehicles.

The driving range target depends on the energy efficiency of the vehicle it is fitted to, and a battery capacity has not been disclosed.

The new battery is said to improve energy density by 7 per cent compared to the previous generation battery, and offers an energy density of 205Wh/kg (meaning a 77kWh battery would weigh approximately 375kg).

For context, the 77.4kWh battery in a Kia EV6 weighs approximately 475kg.

In a presentation to media at the Beijing motor show, Gao Huan, chief technical officer of CATL's Chinese electric vehicle division, said the Shenxing Plus battery can be recharged at a rate of "one kilometre [of range] per second", delivering a 600km estimated range in 10 minutes of charging.

While the long-range capability of the new battery could afford the ability for drivers to make the trip between Melbourne and Sydney without stopping, the executive said based on a daily round-trip commute of about 30km, "you can travel for a month without needing to recharge."