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15-08-2024
BEIJING: Chinese car maker Zeekr says its new electric vehicle (EV) batteries charge faster than any of its rivals, including industry leader Tesla.
The firm says its upgraded batteries can be charged from 10% to 80% capacity in 10 and a half minutes using its ultra-fast charging stations.
In comparison, Elon Musk’s Tesla says a 15 minute charge allows its Model 3 to cover 175 miles (282km), a little under half the car’s full range.
Zeekr’s 2025 007 sedan, which will be available from next week, will be its first vehicle to have the new battery.
“Tesla’s charging technology is not industry leading anymore and has not been for some time,” said Tu Le, founder and managing director of consultancy firm Sino Auto Insights.
“These bold claims by Zeekr are believable, but more importantly even if it’s not the fastest charging EV battery, being one for the fastest is still quite a leap for them”.
The company says the battery performs well even in cold weather, charging from 10% to 80% of its capacity in less than half an hour at temperatures as low as -10C.
The media has contacted Tesla to request a response to Zeekr’s announcement.
Zeekr is owned by Chinese car making giant Geely, which also owns UK-based luxury sports car brand Lotus and Sweden’s Volvo.
In May, Zeekr’s shares started trading on the New York Stock Exchange, marking the first major US market debut by a Chinese company since 2021.
The listing came just days before the Biden administration announced major tariff hikes on Chinese-made electric cars, solar panels, steel and other goods.
The White House said the measures, which included a 100% border tax on EVs from China, were a response to unfair policies and intended to protect US jobs.
Officials in the US, the European Union and other major car markets have grown increasingly concerned about the rapid overseas expansion of Chinese EV companies.
Meanwhile, Li Auto Inc. (“Li Auto” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq: LI; HKEX: 2015), a leader in China’s new energy vehicle market, today announced that it delivered 51,000 vehicles in July 2024, setting a new monthly delivery record and representing an increase of 49.4% year over year. This brought the Company’s total deliveries in 2024 to 239,981. As of July 31, 2024, its cumulative deliveries reached 873,345 vehicles, ranking first among China’s emerging new energy auto brands.
“Li L6 sustained its robust sales performance with monthly deliveries continually exceeding 20,000, and has become a blockbuster model in the RMB200,000 to RMB300,000 price range. With the rollout of OTA versions 6.0 and 6.1 in July, Li L series and Li MEGA have undergone major upgrades, achieving comprehensive enhancements in product strengths across autonomous driving, smart space, and smart electric features,” commented Xiang Li, chairman and chief executive officer of Li Auto. “In particular, our autonomous driving technology has garnered significantly higher user interest and recognition following our 2024 Autonomous Driving Summer Launch Event held on July 5. Since we made our NOA independent of high-definition maps available for test users in May, the proportion of NOA test drives nearly doubled, and orders for Li AD Max models equipped with such NOA function also grew substantially. Additionally, we started to roll out our new autonomous driving technology architecture based on an end-to-end model, a vision-language model, and world models, to approximately a thousand test users at the end of July. We are very pleased to see that our advancements in autonomous driving technology are creating value for an expanding user base, as our products are growing alongside families through OTA updates.” (Int’l News Desk)
