Is an electric vehicle coming when its range exceeds 1000 kilometers?

technological leapfrogging

If charged once, an electric vehicle can travel 1200 kilometers from Beijing to Shanghai. Do electric vehicle owners still have range anxiety? Despite ongoing controversies in the field of technology, the industry has a relatively unified view on the power battery, which plays a core role in the development of new energy vehicles: solid-state batteries are the ultimate solution. Since 2024, more and more car companies have been investing in this field. According to industry predictions, the time point for solid-state batteries to truly achieve mass production and installation may be in 2027. Prior to this, the technological iteration of lithium batteries has not slowed down and is still accelerating the introduction of new technologies.

In February, BMW Group's sixth generation eDrive electric drive technology was officially unveiled. This generation of power batteries innovatively uses large cylindrical cells for the first time, with two heights of 46mm standard diameter, 95mm, and 120mm. At the same time, the sixth generation power battery will adopt a brand new 800V high-voltage platform, which can achieve fast charging for 10 minutes and increase the range by 300 kilometers. Compared with the previous generation, the energy density of the sixth generation large cylindrical battery cells has increased by 20%, the range has increased by 30%, and the charging speed has increased by 30%.

According to Puster, the director responsible for procurement and supplier network at BMW Group, this is a revolutionary innovation that will once again solidify BMW's dominant position in the field of electrification.

According to the plan, BYD's revolutionary second-generation blade battery will also be launched in the first half of this year. One of the key indicators is that the range of the bicycle can exceed 1000 kilometers, improving the service life of the battery, and continuing to maintain the safety, stability, and low cost advantages of LFP lithium iron phosphate batteries, further approaching the energy density of high-end ternary lithium batteries. Last June, Geely Automobile officially released its latest generation of self-developed and self-produced "blade type" lithium iron phosphate batteries - the Aegis Short Blade Battery. Compared to the traditional "long blade battery" in the industry, the SHIELD short blade battery has significant advantages in safety performance, cycle life, fast charging capability, and low-temperature discharge. While entering the solid-state battery industry, car companies are increasingly competing in the lithium battery field. Each company is trying to find the best balance between charging rate, safety performance, cycle life, and other dimensions, in order to achieve more breakthroughs and win more users before electric vehicles officially enter the ultra long range stage.

Technological iteration

Energy density is an important indicator for measuring the performance of power batteries. Simply put, it refers to the amount of energy that a unit weight or volume of battery can store.

The mainstream power batteries in the electric vehicle market are ternary lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries: ternary lithium batteries have high energy density, but poor high temperature resistance; Lithium iron phosphate batteries have high safety but low upper limit of energy density.

The energy density of lithium iron phosphate batteries is generally 100-160Wh/kg, that of ternary lithium batteries is usually 150-350Wh/kg, and that of solid-state batteries is 400-900Wh/kg.

From the current situation, the energy density of CATL Kirin batteries is 255Wh/kg, BYD's blade batteries currently in production have a system energy density of 140Wh/kg and a cell energy density of 170Wh/kg, while Geely