In what the company claims is the fastest electric vehicle (EV) charging performance to date, Chinese automotive manufacturer Geely Auto Group has tested a new EV charger that was able to charge a vehicle to 97% in under 9 minutes.
The company said the system, called Geely Smart Charging, uses AI in energy management to deliver faster charging while also reducing heat, boosting safety and saving battery health.
The system is powered by Xingrui PowerMind, an energy AI model developed by Geely and Chinese AI company Shanghai Jieyue Xingchen Intelligent Technology (StepFun). The companies coordinated the vehicle, battery, charging station, cloud, grid and energy storage system to deliver peak charging power up to 2,250 kilowatts.
Testing the infrastructure
In real-world tests, Geely took its brand Lynk & Co’s 10 EVs with 10% charge left on the batteries and charged them to 70% in 4 minutes and 30 seconds using the Geely Smart Charging infrastructure.
It also tested its other brand Zeekr’s 001 EV at an initial charge of 10% and charged it to 97% in 8 minutes and 40 seconds using the charger.
Geely claimed this is the fastest production-ready charging performance to date.
Handling the heat
With AI-powered EV charging, Geely said this creates a heat issue. To deal with this expedited heat, the AI-powered infrastructure uses algorithms to predict battery temperatures up to 30 seconds ahead and adjusts charging power. This is different from reacting only after temperature rises, which is the traditional way EV infrastructure performs, the company said.
The system is designed to keep the average charging temperature of the battery below 55° C and limit peak temperature to below 65° C.
The system includes a five-point liquid-cooling system that manages heat across the charging chain — from the charging station energy storage battery, charging dispenser, charging cable, charging port and battery pack.
The AI is also designed to help keep the battery persistent from a range of charging and discharging cycles. The AI management system with battery restoration technology is able to increase battery cycle life by 20%, Geely said.
