Battery replacement takes three minutes
William Lee, co-founder and CEO of Nio, personally tested the new semi-solid state battery (SSB) with a capacity of 150 kWh. Driving a large Nio ET7 sedan, Lee and his co-driver drove 1,044 km with 3% of the battery charge remaining, which should have been enough for another 30 km.
The entire 14-hour trip was broadcast live. Lee's co-driver was Shen Fei, director of Nio Power. During the trip, William reported that a 150 kWh battery had already been tested on the route between Kunming and Beihai, setting a record for production electric vehicles (1145 km).
92% of the time (957 km) the ET7 was driven under Navigate-on-Pilot (NOP), Nio's autonomous driving system. The maximum speed was limited to 90 km/h and energy consumption was 13.2 kW•h/100 km. The average travel speed was 83.9 km/h. Travel time was 12.4 hours excluding stops (14 hours in total). Temperatures during testing ranged from -2°C to 12°C (28°54°F). The average temperature in the cabin was 20 °C.
The semi-solid-state battery was developed by Beijing-based battery manufacturer WeLion. The energy density of one element is 360 W•h/kg. Nio claims the battery has ultra-efficient cooling that is six times better than conventional batteries.
The entire 150 kW•h unit weighs 575 kg. Nio currently offers 75 kWh and 100 kWh NMC battery options for its vehicles that have standard batteries. The SSB has the same dimensions, so the new battery can be installed in any Nio vehicle. Nio also announced that vehicles based on the NT1 and NT2 platforms have been tested and certified to use the new battery. Replacement takes 3 minutes.
Mass production of the new battery will begin in April next year.