CATL announced that the first mass-produced car equipped with a new LFP 2.0 Shenxing battery would be the Exeed Exlantix ET. During the extreme cold testing at -20 °C (-4°F) in Inner Mongolia, the electric SUV charged to 80% in 24 minutes. In normal conditions at 25°C (77°F), it can add 400 km in 10 minutes, according to Exeed.
Shenxing Superfast Charging Battery was unveiled in August last year during CATL’s conference. It can provide a range of up to 700 km and features a second-generation fast ion ring. Despite featuring low-cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry, it supports 4C charging, becoming the first 4C LFP battery in the world, according to CATL.
C means a battery charging multiplier, saying how many times the battery can be charged in an hour. Thus, 4C means it can be fully charged in 15 minutes and four times in hour.
Exeed is a premium electric brand under Chery Auto. Exlantix is its series, comprised of two cars: Exlantix ES sedan, which already sells, and Exlantix ET SUV, which started production in January and will launch in the first quarter. CATL previously announced that Chery’s Exeed would be the first customer to offer a commercially available car with a Shenxing battery inside. Still, we didn’t know which car it would be. The Exlantix ET winter tests answered this question.
Exlantix announced that during the extreme cold testing at -20°C, the ET added 20 – 80% SoC in 24 minutes. Previously, Exeed conducted more winter tests, such as freezing the whole vehicle for 24 hours at -30°C or putting the battery into freezing water for one hour, then drying and mounting it back on the car and continuing driving.
The Exlantix ET will offer 60 kWh, 82 kWh, and 100 kWh. It sits on Chery’s EV platform called E0X, which also underpins Luxeed S7 from Chery and Huawei. The dimensions are 4955/1975/1698 mm with a 3000 mm wheelbase, similar to the Li Auto L6 and the Aito M7.
CATL announced that its vehicles powered by the next generation LFP Shenxing battery will be available globally in Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Among its confirmed customers are Chery, Avatr, and Neta.
It would be interesting to know in which other cars these batteries will be used.
At this point, Byd remains far behind with its Blade Battery, which has a very slow charging speed, particularly for Dolphin and Atto 3.
Who knows if there will be improvements soon