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Geely stretches EV battery life to 50 years

Electric vehicle battery breakthroughs are coming so thick and fast these days that followers of these things have become a little blasé about the latest frothing announcement from EV makers. Nevertheless, even the most sceptical of observers stopped to take a second look at Chinese carmaker Geely’s claims for its next generation of battery.

That’s because Geely says its next LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery will last for 3500 charging cycles, which equates to an astonishing 50 years, or one million kilometres of use. That sort of longevity would put it right up there in motoring folklore alongside venerated old Volvos, and magnificent Mercedes diesels still chugging out the hard miles on dusty Egyptian roads, or somewhere.

Now, some vehicle makers’ claims for certain specifications, such as fuel or energy consumption, and range, can politely be described as “optimistic”, and Chinese carmakers aren’t immune to such optimism. But if Geely’s claims for its durability are anywhere near the mark it’s an amazing battery breakthrough.

Myth-busting

One of the many myths about EVs is that the battery is going to totally cark it at the exact minute the eight-year warranty runs out, and you’ll then be raising a second mortgage on the house to replace it. It’s not true, of course, and if the direction of battery longevity keeps increasing at this rate, that myth will soon be well past its expiry date. Because China’s giant battery maker Catyl has also recently released a battery for buses and trucks boasting 1.5 million kilometres of range, with a 15-year warranty.

Progress isn’t just stopping at increasing longevity, because Geely’s new battery will also charge to 80% in under 20 minutes, and loses only 10% of its range in very cold weather. Geely’s achieved quicker charging by using thin carbon nanotubes which help ion transmission, as well as developing better film permeability so those electrons can move between electrodes faster.

Bulletproof

Geely says its new battery is quite literally bulletproof. They say they’ve shot it with a 6.8mm bullet, squashed it with 26 tonnes of weight, and fired eight-inch steel needles into it without it bursting into flames or short circuiting. But wait, there’s more, because they’ve also dumped it in seawater, frozen it, roasted it in fire, and crashed into it with a big heavy thing in a simulated side collision. It's passed all these tests with flying colours thanks to an aluminium foil layer that fuses to create an insulating layer, effectively “healing” itself. Needless to say, Geely think it’s very safe.

It's known as the “Short Blade” because at just 580mm long, it’s 40% shorter than its regular 960mm LFP battery. It might be short, but it still packs enough punch, with an energy density of 192Wh/kg (Watt-hours per kilogram), which is about average for current lithium-ion batteries. Solid-state batteries promise densities of 300Wh/kg, but their development is still some way off.

That’s not the case with Geely’s new battery, which should find its way into the Chinese giant’s many brands including Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, Smart and Zeekr, next year, or possibly even earlier.

Chinese battery makers are leading the world right now, whether it’s Geely’s million-kilometre battery, or CATL’s new Shenxing Plus battery, with its range of 1,000 kilometres that can reach 600 kilometres with a 10-minute charge. And as Chinese economist Ren Zeping remarked in 2022, “Whoever wins the battery war will win it all.”

Written by
Mark Schneider

Mark is a successful copywriter with over 20 years of professional writing experience.

We welcome him as a guest blogger to Fleettorque.

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