Author: Wang Lingfang

On August 30th, GAC Aion set a world record by achieving a range of 207 kilometers after only 5 minutes of charging, thanks to its advanced technologies of super-fast charging batteries and the A480 Supercharging Station with the highest charging power globally.

To achieve this milestone, GAC Aion has made significant efforts in both battery and charging facilities to improve charging efficiency for consumers. Although consumers expect electric vehicles to have the same efficiency as fuel vehicles, factors such as battery materials, charging station capabilities, and temperature affect charging efficiency for electric vehicles.

One of the most critical factors affecting the charging speed of power batteries is the materials used in them. During charging, lithium-ion needs to be quickly inserted into the negative electrode, which poses a significant challenge to the ability of the negative pole to receive lithium-ion in the power battery. Therefore, to improve the charging speed of power batteries, the application and optimization of the battery electrode material have become key.

To promote battery technology development, GAC Group has incubated Jiawan Tech, a high-tech company held by its employees. After seven years of research and development, Jiawan Tech has successfully developed a super-fast charging battery technology that achieves six times the charging rate. Compared to existing electric vehicles, which can only achieve a range of 200 km after being charged for half an hour, Jiawan Tech’s super-fast charging battery can reach a range of 200 km after only five minutes of charging.

According to Jiawan Tech’s CEO, Pei Feng, improving charging speed requires addressing two major challenges of low lithium-ion migration speed and low embedding efficiency. To solve these issues, Jiawan Tech has made significant improvements in both materials and technologies.

For membrane and electrolyte, Jiawan Tech has adopted high porosity ceramic-coated films and a new type of low viscosity and high power electrolyte to reduce the migration resistance of lithium-ion in electrolyte.

For the negative electrode, Jiawan Tech uses a new type of technology, such as the unique soft carbon/hard carbon/graphene encapsulation modification technology, to improve lithium-ion embedding rate.

For conductive agents, Jiawan Tech uses 3D graphene structure to build an efficient conductive network, improving its conductivity.

Ultimately, Jiawan Tech has achieved a comprehensive improvement in migration rate, embedding rate, and conductivity, greatly accelerating the lithium-ion migration process and enabling super-fast charging.

In addition to battery materials, the high voltage platform improves the efficiency of both charging and discharging.To achieve fast charging, one condition is required: the battery must have sufficient charging and discharging power.

Power = Voltage × Current

Therefore, there are two ways to increase power: by either increasing the voltage or increasing the current.

According to the current thermal effect formula Q = I^2Rt, it can be seen that as the current increases, the amount of heat generated increases exponentially, and much energy is consumed in the process of converting it into mechanical energy. Thus, enterprises usually choose to reduce the current and use thinner wire harnesses to reduce heat loss, which also lightens the weight of the whole car and reduces the risk of heat accumulation.

The development and application of high-voltage platform technology is a major undertaking that has a large impact. Increasing the voltage platform means that the entire system, including the core three electric systems and components such as the air conditioning compressor, must work normally under high voltages. As a result, all system components must be redesigned to suit high voltages.

The Porsche Taycan is currently the car with the highest voltage platform in production, with a battery system rated at 723V and a maximum charging power of 350kW, which can charge the power battery from 5% to 80% in just 22.5 minutes.

According to Guangzhou Automobile Aion, its products will have a rated voltage of 770V and a maximum working voltage of 880V. Compared to the current mainstream 450V, Aion’s battery voltage has almost doubled, and the maximum charging power can reach 480kW.

Launching a 480kW charging station and large-scale layout

Guangzhou Automobile Aion’s products can adapt to a charging power of 480kW, but there are no charging stations on the market with such high power.

Therefore, Guangzhou Automobile Aion has also built a high-power ultra-fast charging station and launched the A480 ultra-fast charging station.

Liu Zhihui, Head of the Energy Department of Guangzhou Automobile Aion New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., said that “A” represents AION and also represents A-level high performance, while “480” represents the world’s highest 480kW power.

According to Liu Zhihui, this ultra-fast charging station has four major features: ultra-high power, ultra-high safety, ultra-high intelligence, and ultra-high aesthetics. Its high power is reflected in its peak power of 1000V, current of 600A, and use of a liquid-cooled charging system. Its ultra-high safety is based on multi-dimensional active safety protection and has passed 112 international verifications for overvoltage, overcurrent, and over-temperature protection. Its ultra-high intelligence is reflected in its ability to be scheduled and matched for flexible charging through cloud-based intelligence, and its ultra-high aesthetics comes from the AION exclusive sci-fi water droplet design.

Currently, the world’s first intelligent ultra-fast charging station owned by Guangzhou Automobile Aion has been established and put into operation at the East Hong International Plaza in the Tianhe District of Guangzhou.The site adopts a one-to-five mode, configuring one 480kW and four 180kW charging terminals, to achieve super fast charging and meet the charging needs of 5 vehicles simultaneously.

GAC Aion is accelerating the nationwide construction of A480 supercharging stations.

To bring users the ultimate charging experience, GAC Aion will also rapidly build brand supercharging stations nationwide, making the charging experience of new energy vehicles equal to that of fuel vehicles.

In the future, GAC Aion will rapidly build brand supercharging stations nationwide, centered on first and second-tier cities, radiating surrounding economic zones, forming a brand supercharging network that connects the Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, and connecting the provincial travel routes such as Guangzhou-Beijing, Guangzhou-Shanghai, and Guangzhou-Yungui, forming a grid of highways and byways, and bringing users a good charging experience.

It is expected that by 2025, GAC Aion will have built 2,000 supercharging stations in 300 cities across the country, penetrating to prefecture-level cities and achieving full coverage.

With specific plans for the construction of supercharging stations, GAC also stated that it will soon launch fast-charging batteries.

According to GAC Aion, in September of this year, GAC plans to mass-produce this super-fast charging technology and equip it first on the Aion V, while also launching two versions of the vehicle: 3C 500km and 6C 500km. To dispel concerns about battery life for vehicle owners, the official statement also claims that “the vehicle’s normal temperature 6C fast charging cycle can reach 1 million kilometers.”

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.