Zeekr’s upcoming 007 EV can be charged in just 10 minutes… but there’s a catch
Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer Zeekr has just unveiled its latest 5.5C lithium iron phosphate battery packs, which the company claims can be charged from 10% to 80% in just over 10 minutes.
The official figure is 10 minutes and 30 seconds. Zeekr says that even in freezing conditions, the same battery packs can complete that charge in just 30 minutes. That’s much shorter than the time many modern electric vehicles can achieve in perfect ambient conditions.
This is all thanks to an improved battery management system, which allowed Zeekr engineers to pack more wattage into the new 800V 007 model, which will be delivered to the first customers next week.
The fastest charging cars currently on sale are the Lotus Eletre and the Porsche Taycan. These can charge their batteries at a rate of 350 kW and 320 kW respectively. This takes around 20 minutes.
While Zeekr has effectively halved that time, the big problem is that owners will need to find one of the company’s V3 ultra-fast “charging stations,” which can deliver up to 600kW, far more than anything currently available in the US and Europe.
Zeekr says it has opened more than 500 of these ultra-fast charging stations in China, with plans to expand that number to 1,000 this year and 10,000 by 2026. The company did not say how many stations it plans to install overseas, however.
China continues
While Zeekr is also venturing into other regions and has recently made a positive impression with Swedish and Dutch buyers, it is mainly the Chinese market that is benefiting from the innovations in batteries and charging.
In the US, UK and much of Europe, ultra- and hyper-fast chargers (capable of delivering 350kW or more) are still in the minority. China, on the other hand, is ploughing ahead.
While electric car manufacturers are trying to create models that can charge as quickly as their fossil fuel counterparts, it is the public charging network that continues to lag behind.
With every increase in charging capacity, the grid needs to provide options to reach those speeds. Where 350kW was once considered the absolute pinnacle of EV batteries, companies like Zeekr are proving that this number can be increased… dramatically.
It won’t be long before Tesla and other early EV players start rolling out models and infrastructure that are in the 600kW+ region. In a few years, 350kW will seem slow, but we’ll still have to wait for the public grid to catch up so we can take advantage of those high numbers.