How Superfast Charging Batteries Can Help Sell the Transition to Electric Vehicles
MrPlow writes:
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Israeli company StoreDot recently announced it can now mass produce electric vehicle batteries that can be fully charged in just five minutes. "The bottleneck to extra-fast charging is no longer the battery," claimed the firm's chief executive. But is this fast-charging battery really a gamechanger? And if so: exactly how?
Electric vehicle charging speeds are a minefield and can be tough to understand. The latest models claim peak charging rates of over 900 miles in an hour, but the average rate when charging from 10% to 80% of battery capacity is typically about half that. The last bit of the battery is surprisingly hard to "stuff": beyond 80%, and outside normal operating temperatures, rapid charging slows dramatically.
Even if you understand the capability of your car and its battery, the rate of charging is also constrained by the capacity of the charger itself. The UK, for instance, only has a handful of what we regard today as "ultrafast" chargers capable of delivering over 100 kilowatts.
[...] Fast charging batteries could also reduce the environmental impact of cars and other battery devices. For most drivers, who only occasionally do long journeys, a car with a smaller, lighter battery, which will also be more efficient and cheaper, may be more attractive since there will be less inconvenience from charging stops. This could also have beneficial implications for other battery uses: perhaps you don't need two batteries for your power tools if you can recharge in just one minute?
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