The speeds at which electric vehicles can be recharged have always been a sore point for people looking to switch from combustion power to electric.
And while the charging experience for EVs in the United States has improved over the years–and is bound to become even better as more manufacturers gain access to the Tesla Supercharger network–the U.S. still can’t quite keep up with what’s going on in China.
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Chinese EV goes over 500 kW when charging
In the United States, a lot of the DC fast chargers available to EV drivers can dispense somewhere between 150 and 250 kilowatts. That's not particularly bad, but when the new Zeekr 001 comes into view with its 500+ kW charging capabilities, the reality that the U.S. is miles behind China in the EV game starts to sink in.
Take the updated Zeekr 001 shooting brake, for instance. It’s billed as being an all-new model, although you’d be hard-pressed to pinpoint the differences between the old and the new car, especially if it’s the first time seeing one.
However, as part of the update, Zeekr’s first-ever model got a pretty substantial boost under the skin, in the form of a new CATL-sourced battery, upgraded advanced driving assistance systems–including a roof-mounted Lidar unit–and the adoption of an 800-volt architecture that led to the stretching of the wheelbase by about a quarter of an inch.
But it’s the new battery and its impressive charging capabilities that caught our attention. Called the Shenxing, it packs 95 kilowatt-hours of energy and can during a charging test put together by Zeekr, it went from 10% to 80 % state of charge in just 11 minutes and 28 seconds.
Gallery: 2024 Zeekr 001
After just five minutes of charging, the range increased by 164 miles, but bear in mind that this mileage figure is based on the very forgiving CLTC testing procedure
That percentage change amounted to a range gain of almost 294 miles. But the most impressive thing about this new CATL battery is its peak charging speed. During that test, the Zeekr 001 reached 546.4 kW while hooked up to a 600 kW Zeekr V3 fast charger. More importantly, as you can see in the official video posted on the company’s Weibo account, the car maintained a charging power of over 540 kW between 10% and 35% SoC, after which the input gradually went down to a more down-to-earth 250 kW.
According to CarNewsChina, the new CATL Shenxing battery has integrated temperature control technology to help maintain charging speeds as high as possible even in the freezing cold, with the manufacturer claiming that it takes less than 30 minutes to recharge to 80% at 14 degrees Fahrenheit.
As for the Zeekr 001 that got to 546.4 kW, it was sitting in a parking garage where the temperature was a balmy 78.8 degrees. It’s also worth noting that the new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) CATL Shenxing battery can only be specced in the all-wheel drive version of the 001, while all the other trims are powered by a more conventional nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) 100-kWh battery that’s also made by CATL.
This isn’t the first time a Chinese EV maker made headlines with an ultra-fast-charging car. In February, we learned about the Li Auto Mega minivan, which is capable of drawing up to 521.2 kW from a compatible fast charger and replenishing the range by 310 miles in just 10 minutes.
By comparison, when talking about how many miles of range can be added in an hour when hooked up to a fast charger, the fastest-charging model in the United States right now is the Hyundai Ioniq 6, which has a charging rate of 868 miles/hour, according to Edmunds. In terms of kilowatts, the GMC Hummer EV and Chevrolet Silverado EV get the crown for their 350-kW claimed capabilities.
