Featured Plugin Battery Recharge in 5 Minutes?

So their plan is to make the battery cathode, anode, and electrolyte layers thin enough that the active material is a substantial part of the cells versus the current practice. I look forward to ordering samples. But this would resurrect the fly-wheel charging systems.

You hook-up a fly-wheel that spins up when electricity is cheap and then ZAP charges the batteries. I suppose if the power controller electronics are laid down with these super-thin cells . . .

No I look forward to ordering samples.

Bob Wilson

 

it's going to happen, sooner or later.

 

A lot of misdirection in that article, because if anything it sounds like that technology is struggling to reach viability as a cell phone battery. Read closely and everything in regards to automotive battery development is in the speculative pre-start up stage.

Before I would even speculate as to what this would mean to electric vehicles, I'd want to see success and viability in it's first application which is as a cell phone battery.

Not meaning to rain on any ones parade, but if that article was an entertainer it would be a magician. Using a lot of misdirection, to get you to believe in the potential of a fast charging electric vehicle, when the reality is what you have at this point is a fledgling company trying to get their battery technology established for cell phones, not really a company anywhere close to putting a battery in a vehicle.

But it's not all smoke and mirrors. They have the technology they have. But it sounds to me like at this very early stage, any headlines about fast charging electric cars are more click bait enticement than substantial reality.

 

All the battery research is really materials, and nano-tech is a leading change from 10 years ago. $66 million is no longer much money for this R&D. We have ultra capacitors that can charge and discharge fast, but bulky and expensive compared to lithium batteries. The trick is getting the price down, I think they will be able to figure out this 1 minute charging, making the batteries small enough and cheap enough is the problem. Cell phones and tablets seem like a better application, but I started carrying a USB charger for that task.

I don't think this start up is concerned with charging 80 kwh in 5 minutes, which really takes 1 MW, Do 4 cars at once that would be banks of capacitors with some batteries and a big grid connection. That quick charger may cost more than a battery swap station.

 

People thinking this is real practical have no idea how big a typical 1 MW cable is. Of course, wire size is based on current (amps) and power is proportional to amps times volts. But I doubt we are headed towards very high voltage chargers because there would need to be a seriously large transformer in the car to step down the voltage.

Mike

 

...right just gotta call SCE before you do it, and coordinate with your neighbor

 

awe it can be done. think jumper cables thickness but with a plug instead of clamps, and.extruded cable istead of what we keep in our trunks. Make the battery 1KV, the cables just need to handle steady state 1KA I just think swap stations may be cheaper ;-) I mean we don't need to reinvent the wheel here.

 

Tesla is already doing 135 kWh at ~400v using water cooled relatively thin cables from the charger to the car and say they may be able to do 150 kW soon.

It's probably realistic to up the car's battery, motors and other power electronics to be 600-800v which is then gets you to 200-300 kW charging.

Going up to 1 mW probably won't happen for quite awhile and could always be done with dual cabling rather than a single giant cable.

 

why do we even need cables?

 

In a swap station, the batteries would be locked down on pads. We regularly use extruded plastic and aluminum cables for long runs for DC power, so they are readily available. For a user servicable spot, we need cables for safety. For robotic swap, there still are short connections but they will be fixed on the ground and robotic arms with do the moving that can't get a big jolt.

 

why can't you pull into a charging spot, and charger connects itself to your car?

or wireless charging?

 

you could, Tesla has a prototype working, but that charger has cables in it. The problem is not the cables, its the bank of capacitors and other batteries, that make this type of station cost more than a swap station. Make it 300 kw instead of 1 mw and things get much easier to work with on the grid.

 

that's fine, i think the concern is physically trying to plug in with really heavy cable.

 

they would be able to carry enough juice for 5 minute charge?

 

I think that is more of a cost than a technical problem. I've handled 1 KA cable and its not too bad. They use non oil based plastic that is fairly flexable. You need 2 or probably 3 (ground) cables though in the connector. If a human is handling it, you probably want water cooled a robotic arm you might just make the robot have liquid cooling for the cable built in to reduce resistance and loss.

 

don't want it to be any more difficult than a gas station hose, for general public acceptance.