BMW is partnering with a battery startup on a new EV that gets 600 miles per charge — a potentially record-setting range
A Michigan-based company is claiming to have developed a dual-chemistry battery for electric vehicles (EVs) that would offer a 600-mile range on a single charge.
Our Next Energy (ONE) is working with BMW to incorporate its technology in the car company’s new iX electric SUV, Inside EVs reported.
If the 600-mile range battery does come to fruition and becomes available in the BMW iX, that would make the iX the EV with the longest range on the market. The current leader is the Lucid Air, which has an EPA-estimated range of 516 miles on a single charge. It is followed by the Tesla Model S (EPA-rated 405 miles) and the Hyundai Ioniq 6 (EPA-rated 361 miles).
The now-discontinued Chevy Bolt recently set a world record, achieving 560 miles on a single charge, although that may have been more based on a feat of driving efficiency than the actual technology of the car.
Of course, there are other companies with EVs that have not yet been released that are claiming massive ranges. The solar-powered Aptera, for example, is taking preorders, and the company asserts the vehicle will go 1,000 miles on a single charge.
These types of claims can be taken with a grain of salt, however — Aptera’s first attempt at a solar-powered car resulted in zero cars being delivered and bankruptcy for the company.
Backing up ONE’s claim of a 600-mile range is the company’s revolutionary dual-chemistry battery, which it has named Gemini. While other EVs operate off of just one battery pack, ONE’s Gemini will offer dual support.
Its cars will rely on a smaller lithium iron phosphate battery with a 150-mile range for daily driving. Then a larger range-extended “anode-free” battery with a 450-mile range will activate only during long trips, per the website.
ONE also claims that its dual-chemistry battery is made by “[maximizing] materials that are abundant in North America — iron for LFP, manganese for anode-free — while sharply reducing use of rare, expensive metals like nickel and cobalt.”
This is a big deal, as half of the world’s cobalt reserves are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a United Nations report revealed that hazardous working conditions and child labor are rampant.
If ONE’s battery does indeed decrease the need for cobalt and offers the longest range of any EV on the market, that is progress for the planet as a whole.
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