Things change and charge fast in China’s EV world, after all that’s why you read Car News China! Just weeks after Li Auto wowed the world with the charging speed of the Mega, the new Zeekr 001 has grabbed the crown to be the fastest charging EV at least in terms of peak power rate.
A Zeekr 001 fitted with a CATL Shenxing 95 kWh super-rechargeable battery charged from 10% to 80% in 11 minutes 28 seconds and in the process added 473 kilometers of range. This feat was achieved using a Zeekr V3 supercharger (600 kW) with an ambient temperature of 26°C. Peak charging power reached 546.4 kW. Between 10 and 35% state of charge the Zeekr 001 maintained charging power of over 540 kW increasing the range by 264 km in 5 minutes and 432 km in 10 minutes.
The new CATL Shenxing battery has temperature control technology to achieve superfast charging across a range of temperatures. Even with a temperature of -10°C, it can be charged to 80% within 30minutes.
Zeekr aims to build 1,000 ultra-fast charging stations this year to add to the current 900 Zeekr operated charging stations which have 2,483 chargers rated at 360 kW and over out of a total of 5,490 chargers.
The new Zeekr 001 launched in February with deliveries beginning on March 1 and constitutes a major upgrade to the car originally launched in 2021. Key upgrades include changes to the platform and the ADAS capabilities of the car. ADAS gets a boost thanks to the addition of a roof mounted Lidar unit.
Crucially the car adopts the new Zeekr 800V platform and the wheelbase is 6 mm longer at 3005 mm than the old car. It is the 800V architecture which helps support such fast charging.
Only the 4WD We version of the Zeekr 001 gets the 95 kWh Shenxing battery which is a lithium iron phosphate unit from CATL. All other versions get a 100 kWh Kirin NCM battery also from CATL. Prices of the Zeekr 001 range from 269,000 yuan (37,500 USD) to 329,000 yuan (45,800 USD).
Zeekr is an all EV brand from Geely and the 001 was the brand’s first car. The brand currently sells four models, the 001, 007, 009 and X. Along with China the brand is already selling in Europe and is moving into other markets including the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Source: Fast Technology
It charge fast, also in -10 degrees. But what about the range at that temperature? Zeekr 001 and the all new Xiaomi SU7 offer the CATL Shenxing LFP battery, therefor range according to very cold temps are interesting. Are there any tests yet?
I don’t believe I have seen anything yet. As you say range in cold weather is always an issue and few EVs seem to be able to do well in such conditions.