Range anxiety is one of the reasons that hinder a mass transition to electric vehicles across the globe. Providing a viable solution to this, a Chinese battery startup has now released a battery that can offer a range of 1,000 kilometres on a single charge.
Gotion High Tech has announced its new L600 lithium-manganese-iron-phosphate (LMFP) Astroinno battery that can provide class-leading efficiency figures. The announcement comes shortly after the firm obtained a procurement letter from Volkswagen and became a designated supplier of batteries for the automaker's overseas markets.
According to the company, the NCM-free (Nickel-Cadmium-Maganeese) batteries, which have undergone a research period of 10 years, have passed all necessary safety testing cycles, and their mass production is set to begin in 2024.
A highly efficient offering that can run for four million kilometres
The company has managed to solve issues with lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries which had encountered bottlenecks concerning efforts to improve their energy density. An upgrade to the chemical system was needed, which was fulfilled by "utilising co-precipitation, doping encapsulation technology, new granulation technology, and new electrolyte additives", said in a press release.
The alternations made have resulted in the Astroinno battery cell offering a weight energy density of 240Wh/kg, an energy density of 525Wh/L, and a cycle life of 4,000 times at room temperature, which equates to four million kilometres.
"The volumetric cell-to-pack ratio has reached 76% after adopting the L600 cell, and the system energy density has reached 190Wh/kg, surpassing the pack energy density of current mass-produced NCM cells. Due to the high energy density of Astroinno battery, we can enable a range of 1,000km without relying on NCM materials," said Cheng Qian, executive president of the International Business Unit of Gotion High-Tech.
A safer and more compact product
A double-side liquid cooling technique and minimalist design enabled by a sandwich structure have helped the team to reduce the number of structural parts of the battery pack by 45%. In contrast, weight-savings concerning structural parts stand at 32%. "The length of the battery pack wiring harness to drop from 303 metres to 80 metres, which is only 26% of that of previous battery packs."
Advanced thermal insulation techniques have enabled batteries to withstand a high temperature of up to 1,200°C, which is "equivalent to putting a layer of heat-insulating skin on the battery cell surface". Four layers of ultimate safety protection through rapid heat exhausting channels also prepare the battery to counter extreme circumstances.
According to the team, the product has passed all "penetration, hot box, overcharge, over-discharge, thermal runaway, crush, and short circuit tests according to the new national standard".