Watch: Tesla Model S With New Prototype Battery Gets 1,210 Km of Range
The Tesla Model S is by far one of the longest-range electric vehicles on the market right now, capable of driving up to 652 kilometres with a pack full of electrons according to Natural Resources Canada.
A Michigan-based company, Our Next Energy (ONE), recently managed to travel way farther than that using a prototype of its newly developed Gemini battery.
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During a road test last month, a retrofitted Model S drove from Detroit all the way up to the Mackinac Bridge and back, covering 1,210 kilometres in real-world conditions.
But that’s not all. Using the same average speed of 88.5 km/h, the car was later tested inside ONE’s facilities where it achieved a whopping 1,419 kilometres. The absence of inclines, reduced rolling resistance and the fact that the car never stopped explain the difference.
For the record, the Gemini battery has about twice the capacity of Tesla’s pack (203.7 kWh vs. 100 kWh), but it also happens to use advanced dual chemistry and artificial intelligence to maximize range. ONE founder Mujeeb Ijaz assures that their product is “doubling the available energy on board in the same package space.”
The company will continue development in 2022 and 2023, after which it promises to launch batteries giving conventional trucks and SUVs a range of more than 1,100 kilometres.
According to Deloitte’s 2022 Global Automotive Consumer Study, American drivers expect an EV to be able to travel 834 kilometres on a single charge, on average. This is the highest number of any country surveyed.