An electric car maker in China has demonstrated a new

Shanghai-based Nio claims the next-generation battery will enter mass production in April 2024, offering a longer range than any other electric or fuel-powered car currently on the market.

Nio chief executive William Li drove the all-electric ET7 vehicle 1,044 km (649 miles) during a 14 hour live stream, which saw the car travel from Zhejiang Province to Fujian Province on Sunday at an average speed of 84 km/h. A separate test of the breakthrough battery reportedly saw it cover 1,145 km, however this was not broadcast.

“The completion of this endurance challenge proves the product power of the 150 kWh ultra-long endurance battery pack,” Mr Li wrote in a post to the Chinese social media site Weibo.

“This battery is currently the battery pack with the highest energy density in mass production in the world and has excellent safety performance. More importantly, all models on sale can be flexibly upgraded to 150kWh batteries through the Nio Battery Swap system.”

Nio takes an unorthodox approach to charging vehicles, favouring a battery Swap system rather than plugging the car in to an outlet and waiting for the battery to recharge.

A unique mechanism built into the vehicle means an empty battery can be swapped with a fully-charged battery in less than three minutes – roughly the amount of time it takes to refill a fuel-powered vehicle.

Customers are able to buy a vehicle without a battery, and then pay a monthly subscription fee to use batteries within Nio’s network.

Nio President Qin Lihong said that buying the new battery outright would cost 298,000 yuan ($42,000) – roughly equivalent to the price of a Tesla Model 3 – which is why the company advocates for the swappable hire scheme for its customers and the broader EV industry.

“NIO started battery swap from the very beginning, it has been ready to open up its technologies and infrastructure to the entire industry,” Mr Li said.

“Similar to the cloud service provided by Internet companies, NIO’s Power Swap network and Power Cloud also followed the path along which we started with developing infrastructure and achieving a closed loop internally, and then open to others after validating the service across various scenarios.”

The company revealed in November that it has provided over 32 million battery swaps for users through its network of more than 2,000 Power Swap Stations worldwide.

Culled from Independent/Yahoo News.