Scientists at Penn State has seemingly solved the biggest current issue with electric vehicles – the long charging times and prohibitive size of the battery.
Currently, the best EV batteries on the market take half an hour or more to charge with a high-powered DC fast charger.
Penn State University has published a study revealing they have developed a battery that will reach 70 per cent capacity in 10 minutes.
Crucially, the technology can be transported to any sized battery, meaning smaller batteries with less range but quicker charging times may soon become the norm, reducing the overall price and time-cost of running an EV.
The process involves “burying thin sheets of nickel foil inside a battery” in order to maintain the optimal battery heat (around 80 degrees Celsius) during charging, without the slowdown of the chemical reactions (needed to store energy) that cold weather brings, nor the overheating which creates a fire hazard.
“Battery technology has been lagging behind, and its fast-charging problem has been a longstanding challenge,” says Chao-Yang Wang, a professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State, who led the study.
“Now you can essentially use much less raw materials and reduce a tremendous [amount of] carbon emissions from manufacturing those batteries.”
According to Time, Wang is no mere researcher, but has skin in the game. He is founder of EC Power, who is currently building a factory to mass produce these fast-charging batteries, which he expects will hit the market within two years.
He has been working on this problem for seven years.
“Only now, we’re beginning to crack the code.”
