- An electric car battery that can be charged in five minutes was announced on Monday.
- Standard electric vehicle batteries take about 8 hours to fully charge.
- The faster loading capability would make EVs more accessible to the general public.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
An electric car battery that can be charged in 5 minutes, the time required to fill a gas tank, was first produced at a factory in China.
The new lithium-ion batteries were developed by the Israeli company StoreDot and manufactured by Eve Energy in China. The company produced 1,000 sample batteries in compliance with lithium-ion battery certifications, StoreDot announced on Tuesday.
The samples will be used to show the company’s technology to potential buyers and investors looking to make a leap in the EV market, including BP, Daimler, Samsung Ventures and TDK.
Faster charging batteries would make electric vehicles more functional
For many drivers, electric cars are not viable for long journeys due to the time it takes to charge vehicles. Today’s electric car batteries on the market can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 12 hours to charge, although a typical EV takes about 8 hours to charge from empty to full, according to PodPoint, an electric vehicle charger manufacturer.
Electric vehicles are a crucial part of Biden’s $ 2 trillion climate change plan, in which he wants a completely green electric grid by 2035, with cars powered by electricity instead of gasoline. StoreDot’s new battery technology would make that green future more viable, eliminating what CEO Doron Myersdorf calls the biggest barrier for electric vehicles: “charging range and anxiety”.
“Today’s announcement is an important milestone, moving XFC for the first time beyond innovation in the laboratory to a commercially viable product that is scalable for mass production,” said Myersdorf. in the press release. “We are on the verge of a revolution in the EV loading experience that will remove the critical barrier to mass adoption of EVs.”
Electric cars have an average of 250 miles of driving capacity per charge. With a battery that charged faster, drivers would not be limited in range and could take longer trips like any other conventional car.
While today’s lithium-ion batteries use graphite as an electrode, the StoreDot battery works faster by replacing the graphite with semiconductor nanoparticles that allow ions to pass through more easily and quickly. The company’s expectation is to replace this electrode with silicon, a much cheaper component, by the end of the year.
Tesla is also working on the development of silicon electrodes.
Elon Musk has long called for faster charging speeds for electric cars
On Monday, Musk tweeted, “Battery cell production is the fundamental rate limiter that slows down a sustainable energy future. Very important problem.”
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 18, 2021
Tesla has made strides to give EVs a longer travel range through an extensive network of Superchargers, as well as its new generation of long-range electric cars that can go up to 400 miles between charges. Musk hopes to make electric cars as convenient and affordable as conventional vehicles with a combustion engine.
Fast-charging EV batteries still take several years
StoreDot’s five-minute battery is unlikely to enter the mainstream market for many years, as mass production will not be available for a long time, while the company continues to improve its technology.
StoreDot has already tried fast charging batteries for phones, drones and scooters. In 2014, the company developed a prototype charger that can increase your phone’s battery from dead to fully charged in 30 seconds.