Zeekr “Golden Battery” Charging Test

[E365]

One of the first independent tests of the new generation of Chinese battery tech. Obliterates anything from the USA, Europe, Japan or South Korea. This is what their huge government support got them. Well on their way to taking over many auto markets…

75kWh LFP battery
10-80% in UNDER 10 minutes
0-100% in 22 minutes
467kW peak
Holds 200+ kW until about 85%
5.5C

This is just one of MANY Chinese batteries and vehicles doing stuff like this now.

Chart from the video.TOP 3. The Zeekr is the Green line, Dark Blue line is Silverado EV. Porsche Taycan is Orange line.

 

[Propflux01]

That fast charging has got to be hard on the batteries. I wonder how much battery life is lost on this?

 

[OVERKILL]

That fast charging has got to be hard on the batteries. I wonder how much battery life is lost on this?

Yup. Charge speed is directly coupled to battery life. You can blast massive amounts of energy into a battery if you can keep it cool and don't care about how long it lasts.

 

[Propflux01]

“467kW peak
Holds 200+ kW until about 85%
5.5C”

I’d like to see the specs on what this does to that battery, or how long it lasts after a few blasts of current like that. If they found a way to overcome it, I would be more impressed, but with my limited knowledge on the subject, and my own experience with lithium batteries, I’ll stick with my answer.

 

[Torrid]

I think they’re just relaxing the controls on charging speed. LFPs don’t do well being rammed with fast power. They can fast charge, but they’re not the batteries that set records.

 

[OVERKILL]

I think they’re just relaxing the controls on charging speed. LFPs don’t do well being rammed with fast power. They can fast charge, but they’re not the batteries that set records.

Yup, if you can keep it cool, I'm sure you could blast a few seconds of a Darlington unit into one if you really wanted, but the lifespan will suffer considerably.

 

[Vercingetorix]

The Chinese seem to excel at promises, the reality, I have found is much different. 10,000 lumen led drop in bulbs are laughable. 10,000 watt car amplifier for $167 dollars! Maybe I should move to China because they are so far ahead of the entire rest of the world.

 

[LavaRand]

Did you watch the video? It's still impressive. I agree the big question is battery lifetime but being able to charge 10% to 80% in ten minutes is impressive stuff.

 

[Torrid]

Did you watch the video? It's still impressive. I agree the big question is battery lifetime but being able to charge 10% to 80% in ten minutes is impressive stuff.

It sounds impressive. You can ram any battery full fast. The problem as mentioned is longevity. I have to be honest that it doesn't seem realistic long term.

 

[Ws6]

Yup. Charge speed is directly coupled to battery life. You can blast massive amounts of energy into a battery if you can keep it cool and don't care about how long it lasts.

Charging isn't a big deal. This is slow, really. It's discharging them that is an issue. You can do that much harder than you can charge them, and battery life correlates more to that vs charging.

 

[OVERKILL]

Charging isn't a big deal. This is slow, really. It's discharging them that is an issue. You can do that much harder than you can charge them, and battery life correlates more to that vs charging.

You are able to pull down 70% of the battery's capacity in under 10 minutes? That's a discharge of 52.5kWh; a sustained draw of 315kW; 422HP.

 

[LavaRand]

When I used to run RC cars we dumped the whole capacity in one race, which was 8 minutes. If you didn't, you were wasting battery weight. The good cells had 30C printed right on them, meaning they were rated to discharge in 2 minutes...if you could ever cool them.

 

[UncleDave]

Cant wait to see the degradation curve on this after 1,2, 3 K cycles.

 

[alarmguy]

never mind

 

[Cujet]

Sandbagging can also significantly skew the published specs. One way is to oversize the battery, then call 85 or 90% "full". Not once in all of human history has fast charging a battery been good for it.

 

[buster]

BYD Co. unveiled a new system for electric cars that the Chinese automaker says will allow them to charge almost as fast as it takes a regular car to refuel.

BYD’s Chairman and founder Wang Chuanfu said a new battery and charging system was capable of providing 292 miles of range in 5 minutes in tests on its new Han L model.

 

[UncleDave]

All that charging speed doesn't necessarily mean faster trip times.

Bjorn got his hands on the 100KW version of the fastest charging EV in the world- the Zeekr x7.

It couldn't even beat a Model S on a 1K trip only managing a tie.

At least it didnt overheat like the BYD's

View attachment 289544

 

[jghall00]

Yup. Charge speed is directly coupled to battery life. You can blast massive amounts of energy into a battery if you can keep it cool and don't care about how long it lasts.

It's the heat from fast charging that degrades the batteries. If you can get the internal resistance down enough to reduce heat buildup and reduce internal swelling , the battery will accept a higher C rate. BYD isn't the only one claiming these C rates. Storedot says its tech will be on the Polestar 5.

 

[OVERKILL]

It's the heat from fast charging that degrades the batteries. If you can get the internal resistance down enough to reduce heat buildup and reduce internal swelling , the battery will accept a higher C rate. BYD isn't the only one claiming these C rates. Storedot says its tech will be on the Polestar 5.

Yes, the heat expedites the chemical degradation of the cells, and heat management practically limits the rate of charge (and discharge) a pack can handle. This is why Tesla limits supercharging for example. There's only so much cooling you can do within the confines of an automobile chassis, so you are forced to balance charge/discharge (which we see with some OEM's limiting full power to set periods of time for example) with cell life. Many OEM's are likely very conservative on this front, I expect the Chinese OEM's are far less so.

This study:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-7111/ad6cbd

Which is focused on SoC range impact on LFP cell longevity (so, germane to this thread), has the following table, showing the impact of temperature (40C vs 55C) on degradation: