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When Jim Farley returned from China, several lessons were brought under his arm. Almost that it doesn’t matter when you read this because, with each visit to China of the Ford CEO, Farley always takes care of airing everything he has learned there. Among what has been learned, one day he questioned the real importance of the unacabable autonomies for an electric car. Taking into account that the battery size of an electric car remains a Too much spiny matter When lowering cars, Farley pointed out that his strategy for the future went through Manufacture small electric electric Because as soon as the price was put more battery. “If you have batteries like that, you can’t make money,” argued In reference to gigantic battery cars, the same ones that promise autonomies of many hundreds of kilometers and that, in the face of the future, promise to reach 1,000 kilometers between recharges. Farley has been a critical voice with those gigantic electric cars but is not the only one that has been expressed in those terms. Mazda, for example, made the same reflection Some time ago, focusing that large batteries raised the costs of the car … and its weight, a red line that the Japanese company has always tried to dodge. Although the approach was not exactly the same in the form (the Japanese study incorporating extended range versions With engines Combustion rotatingas they have done with the MX-30), in the background they did show that the bet should be another: contained autonomies but with systems that will stretch them in a simple way. Either with very fast recharges or, in the case of Mazda, with a small combustion engine that can save you at any time. In China they think something similar. While there are two clearly defined paths and one of them is committed to huge batteries, others are clear that they must get the fastest possible charges to offer an attractive electric car to the general public. Byd is one of them. But it is not the only one. More kilometers or faster When last week we attended the presentation of the Mazda 6eI felt that the press conference we attend with a bittersweet aftertaste and a more or less clear idea with everyone with whom I spoke. The completely electric Berlina, which Mazda has created with Changan, is sold with a 68.8 kWh battery or a second of 80 kWh. This last option seemed ideal for those who wanted Use your car to travel comfortably. If we suppose a consumption of 20 kWh/100 km, the first will not reach 350 kilometers between recharges and the second one would touch the 400 kilometers of a single sitting. However, the first battery can be loaded at a maximum of 165 kW of power, going from 10 to 80% in 24 minutes. The second, on the other hand, cannot do it at more than 90 kW, limiting that rapid recharge from 10 to 80% to 47 minutes. The general impression, so I talked to the fellow journalists, is that we would all sacrifice those 50 kilometers of autonomy if that would allow us to stop almost 25 minutes less when plugging the hose. Everyone seemed to us that a 90 kW recharge is not up to a car with aspirations to be an electric supervent. In ByD they have a similar impression and their bet is determined: Ultra -grape rechargesat the pace of filling a gas tank even if you have to stop once more. Although for now, They assured usits 1 MW recharge was mainly intended for heavy transport, they aspire to be an attractive solution for their own customers, with launches of more cars (right now they have two that admit this power) that can make use of these loaders. His approach is that the by and tang l can recover 400 kilometers of autonomy in five minutes. I would dare to say that the vast majority of drivers need or prefer to make a small stop before covering that distance. Huawei is one of them. The technological presented a few months ago A 1.5 MW recharge. Again, it is a very interesting formula for heavy transport but, to put it in perspective, a car with a large 100 kWh battery could be completely filled in five minutes if it did not have the obvious power restrictions so as not to be completely damaged. In spite of everything, if a manufacturer offers energy accumulators as resistant as those of Byd, filling a battery of this size should not take more than 10-15 minutes. Although Byd has filled headlines since he presented this load system, they are not the only ones. In April, Catl also presented a recharge system capable of overcoming that of the company of Stella Li, vice president of Byd than in Coach has defended these recharge systems against Autonomies of a thousand kilometers and said they aspire to bring them to Europe. In the interview he said that “they don’t give me more than 300 kilometers because I don’t want to pay the cost (of a greater battery).” Although I understand why Stella Li defends this approach, I also understand that Western manufacturers continue to prefer to offer much higher autonomies in order to sell as a purchase value. Perhaps 300 kilometers are fair but firmly believe that more than 350-400 kilometers of autonomy are needed in an electric car if the recharge network is powerful enough. I believe it with loaders of more than 150 kW, let’s not say with those plugs (and cars) that allow recharges at 1,000 kW. Despite this, There is something cultural In Stella Li’s words. You have to understand that China is a country so big that long trips They are usually done by plane or bullet train. The cities are so large that they favor adoption to the electric car because it is the environment where its virtues are more valued: without noise, without vibrations and … Read more