Chery Fengyun A9 Completes Six Extreme Sequential Tests with Rhino Battery Unchanged Throughout

Chery Automobile recently partnered with China Automotive Technology & Research Center (CATARC) to conduct a comprehensive six-part extreme vehicle-level test on its Fengyun A9 model—without replacing any components or performing repairs throughout the entire process. This marks the industry’s first instance of applying six extreme stress conditions consecutively to a single vehicle. The tests were conducted in the following sequence: 1. Underbody scraping with sharp objects 2. Eight high-energy impacts to the underbody 3. Rough-water fording after underbody damage 4. Combined immersion, rain exposure, and charging challenge 5. High-temperature charging 6. Post-test battery pack nail penetration from underneath the vehicle Specific test conditions were as follows: 1. **Sharp-object underbody scraping**: The vehicle drove over a surface covered with 30° prism-shaped protrusions and negative obstacles 300 mm high, subjecting the battery pack to multi-point loading and serrated scraping—significantly more severe than the national standard’s single-point spherical scraping requirement. 2. **Underbody impact testing**: Eight impacts were delivered across four locations—three impacts at 150J each at two locations, and one impact at 210J each at the other two. This far exceeds the national standard, which specifies only three impact points (front, middle, rear) with a single 150J impact per point. 3. **Post-damage rough-water fording**: After completing scraping and impact tests, the vehicle traversed a 350 mm-deep water section over a 500-meter distance on a bumpy road. The water depth was 2.3 times the national standard, marking the industry’s first combined “scraping + impact + fording” sequential test. 4. **Immersion, rain, and charging test**: The entire vehicle was submerged in a 400 mm-deep water tank while simultaneously undergoing DC fast charging and simulated rainfall at Level 2 intensity for four continuous hours. This represented the industry’s first publicly disclosed validation combining “immersion + rain + charging” in a single scenario. 5. **High-temperature charging**: Conducted in an ambient temperature of (55±2)°C, the vehicle remained stationary for three hours before completing a high-power charge to full capacity. 6. **Post-series nail penetration test**: After all prior tests, an 8 mm-diameter flat-head steel needle with a 30° tip penetrated the battery pack from beneath the vehicle at a speed of 3 mm/s. The system was monitored continuously for two hours—a first in the industry for conducting nail penetration after a full sequence of real-world extreme stress tests on a complete vehicle. **Test Results**: - The passenger cabin remained dry; the vehicle operated normally after water fording and retained full charging functionality. - The battery system showed no leakage, no casing rupture, no fire, and no explosion. - At the cell level, a cloud-based alert was triggered, but the vehicle unlocked normally with no combustible materials detected inside. - The test earned official certification from CATARC under its NESTA CHALLENGE program. As of the end of 2025, vehicles equipped with Chery’s Rhino Battery have accumulated 43,000 units in service, covering a total distance of 1.2 billion kilometers, with the highest mileage for a single vehicle reaching 160,000 km—all maintaining a record of zero spontaneous combustion incidents and zero battery-related accidents. Chery previously launched the Rhino Battery Safety Guarantee Program, pledging to replace affected vehicles with a new unit of the same model if thermal runaway results in total loss due to inherent defects in the power battery. First owners using their vehicles for non-commercial purposes receive lifetime warranty coverage for the entire triad of electric systems (battery, motor, and electronic control). All sold and currently available models meet the latest national safety standards for traction batteries.