If someone claims a car has a range of 1,000 kilometers and can be fully charged in minutes and safely, it must be a scam, said Ouyang Minggao, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at the 2021 China EV100 forum on Sunday.

His comments came after GAC Group said its graphene battery is now in production testing for real vehicles and is tentatively scheduled for mass production in September this year.

GAC said the battery can be charged to 80 percent in as little as eight minutes and has an NEDC range of up to 1,000 kilometers. In comparison, the Tesla Model S's super-fast charging achieves a range of 270 kilometers in about 15 minutes.

Ouyang's comments were seen as directed at GAC Group. He said, "If someone tells you that his car has a range of 1,000 kilometers and can be fully charged in a few minutes while being safe and cost-effective. With the current technology, he must be a liar."

GAC Group plans to mass-produce graphene battery that boasts of charging to 80% in 8 mins in Sept

He said that for new energy vehicles, an important breakthrough has been made in the core technology of high-efficiency thermal management system, which will make the range loss in low-temperature environment in winter 2/3 lower than the existing models.

He mentioned that with the construction of the charging system and breakthroughs in fast charging technology, in the next 5-10 years, users can achieve a full 75% charge in 15 minutes during the day.

"With the strong boost of all kinds of technical breakthroughs, new energy vehicles are about to usher in a key turning point of all-round breakthrough," Ouyang said.

Later, GAC Aion General Manager Gu Huinan responded in the same forum. He said that new energy vehicles with a range of up to 1,000 kilometers will definitely appear this year, but the cost will not be very low.

He said that people should not misunderstand Ouyang's comment, who said that you need both fast charging and cheap, which is definitely not possible. "Eight minutes full is not only related to the battery but also related to the charging pile. Don't confuse the issue of technological breakthroughs with commercial applications."

"This year 1000 km range of the car is certainly to come out, fast charging is also certain to come out, 8 minutes full 1000 km, theoretically is possible," he said.

If 8 minutes to charge 1,000 kilometers, high power fast charging piles need to be built, he said, adding that this is technically possible, just costly, and GAC Aion will move forward with the steps.

GAC NIO CEO reportedly to leave company in March