Maker of the first 600-mile electric SUV outs a new high-power SmLFP battery with twice the charge speed

GAC Motor, the carmaking conglomerate behind the first electric SUV announced with over 1000km (620 miles) range - the Aion LX Plus - has unveiled a new take on the affordable LFP battery tech that improves it across the specs board. Not only do the new design and chemistry offer 20% higher volumetric and 13.5% energy densities, but it also allows for much faster charging and longer lifespan than the current LFP batteries that are used in, say, over half of new Tesla cars like the Model 3.

Built around a new active cathode material with microcrystalline structure, the so-called SmLFP battery manages to avoid most of the pitfalls of the current lithium iron phosphate battery generation and will be in mass production next year when GAC plans to use it for the next-gen electric vehicles of its Aion brand. The new cathode material enables the SmLFP cells to charge at a 2C rate which theoretically should halve the current on-charger times of vehicles with LFP batteries.

Not only that, but the improved design and chemistry allow for about a million miles of service life, again a particular increase of the current LFP battery longevity. Last but not least, the battery capacity retention at sub-zero temperatures gets another 10% boost in direct comparison with the conventional LFP batteries used currently in electric cars.

At the moment, Tesla is positioned very well to take advantage of the low cost, low energy density characteristics of LFP cells as its drivetrain is extremely efficient and can achieve decent range numbers with the cheaper batteries. With the progression of the lithium iron battery tech, however, like GAC's new SmLFP invention, its utilization is bound to become more ubiquitous.

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