First EV with over 800km range launched with new Qilin battery – and it’s a people mover

Back in August, rumours were building around Tesla potentially using a new CATL battery in their Model Ys that could offer a 10% increase in range. At that time Tesla disregarded these new battery rumours to use CATL’s latest Qilin batteries with higher energy density. 

Now in November, the first EV with CATL’s revolutionary Qilin batteries has been launched and it happens to be a people mover. This is according to reporting by cnevpost. 

The new MPV is the Zeekr 009 MPV (Multi-Purpose Vehicle) with a 140 kWh battery pack based on CATL’s Qilin battery technology.

822 km of range from the new battery pack

Zeekr is Geely’s premium EV. Geely, which also owns Volvo, Polestar and Lotus, has officially unveiled its Zeekr 009 MPV with a version that offers a whopping 822 km of range. 

This is more range than 99% of current ICE vehicles according to Zeekr CEO, An Chunghui.

The Zeekr 009 can achieve that range with CATL’s Qilin battery pack which has made its first appearance in any production EV.

According to CATL, the Qilin Battery provides high energy density and can reach 255 Wh/kg. It is also able to provide a range of up to 1,000 km in the right EV configuration.

An example of this is the Zeekr 001 which will be the first production EV to offer 1,000+ km of range using this new battery technology.

People mover that accelerates quicker than performance SUVs

The new battery is also able to deliver energy efficiently to this MPV’s dual-motor 400kW propulsion system. It gets the Zeekr 009 from 0-100 km/h in 4.5 seconds. That’s quicker than nearly every ICE SUV on the market in Australia.

Zeekr is expecting the price of their new model to be topping at $127,000 AUD.

At the new Zeekr launch event, Zeekr announced that the deliveries of the Zeekr 009 will officially start in January 2023.

The MPV segment is another one where it’d be great to see EV options available to consumers globally. Currently, some popular ICE models include the Kia Carnival and the Honda Odyssey.

With Polestar already delivering EVs into Australia, we hope to see EVs like Zeekr to launch in Australia over the coming years.