19/06/2023 (China) - Electric vehicles seemed to be the green future of transportation, but owners were deterred by slow-charging batteries that only lasted for short-range drives and could not operate in cold temperatures. Chinese startup Greater Bay Technology claimed it had developed a new 1,000 km range EV battery that charged in six minutes and could work in any weather.
As reported by Bloomberg, the battery (called the Phoenix) used superconducting materials and thermal management to bring freezing temperatures to normal room temperature in just five minutes.
This was revolutionary because extreme temperatures had been the bane of electric vehicle batteries since they were introduced, causing the batteries to lose their charging efficiency when the temperature dipped below zero degrees Celsius.
According to Interesting Engineering, the Phoenix cell could deliver a range of 1,000 km on a single charge. Huang Xiangdong, the founder of Greater Bay Technology, explained that the use of superconducting materials and thermal management technology in the cell ensured that the battery could be heated back from temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius in just five minutes.
Furthermore, when the battery was within the normal operating temperature range, it could be fully charged in six minutes. The cell could effectively be used in any weather conditions and was equivalent to filling the tank of a gasoline-powered car, matching the company's vision. "The Phoenix battery not only addressed the long charging time for EVs but other pain points. It didn't matter if it was a hot day or a cold day, the Phoenix battery's range wouldn't be affected," said Huang.
Greater Bay Technology was confident that this technology would increase the mass adoption of EVs. The Phoenix cell could be seen in action as early as next year on GAC's Aion EVs, as well as EVs from other carmakers.