SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Zeekr, the premium electric vehicle brand of Chinese automaker Geely, unveiled on Thursday lithium iron phosphate batteries it developed that support fast charging.
Zeekr becomes the latest manufacturer to launch such a battery in a competitive market, as it moves to cut dependence on external suppliers for the key component of electric vehicles, or EVs.
At a battery plant owned by Zeekr’s parent Geely Holding Group in the province of Zhejiang, the company said its upcoming 007 sedan would be the first model to be equipped with the batteries, which charge sufficiently within 15 minutes to reach a driving range of 500 km (300 miles), together with an 800-voltage electric system.
Zeekr’s Chinese rival Nio, which has also been developing battery technologies of its own, plans to spin off its battery making unit to ease costs, Reuters reported this month.
Zeekr has used nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) batteries from the world’s largest battery maker, CATL, to power its 001 crossover and 009 multipurpose vehicles (MPV).
CATL has also launched fast-charging batteries to be used in Li Auto’s first pure electric MPV MEGA, enabling a driving range of 500 km (300 miles) with a charging time of 12 minutes.
(This story has been corrected to say that the battery plant is owned by Zeekr’s parent Geely not Zeekr, in paragraph 3)
(Reporting by Zhang Yan, Brenda Goh; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
