Automaker NIO plans to make its next-generation battery packs available in the fourth quarter of this year, Kallanish learns from NIO.

The new battery pack, featuring a hybrid electrolyte, will have a 50% increase in energy density compared to the previous one. Li Bin, founder, president and ceo of NIO, disclosed this plan during NIO Day 2020, which was held in January 2021. 

He said: "Improving our electric vehicle charging and battery swapping facilities can also benefit our users by enabling flexible battery pack upgrades. For battery packs of the same sizes, we have been increasing the battery capacities by 20% per year. And as the technology evolves, we are now setting higher demands to ourselves ... The capacity of the new battery pack product will be 150 kilowatt-hours (with the size of the pack unchanged). The new battery pack adopts the in-situ solidification technology for hybrid electrolyte materials, inorganic pre-lithium silicon-carbon composite anode materials, and nano-coating nickel-ultrarich cathode materials. The energy density reaches 360 watt-hours/kilogram."

With the new battery pack equipped on NIO's ET7 model, the range can reach about 1,000 kilometres under The New European Driving Cycle (NDEC).