Researchers in United States have found a way to recharge EV batteries in 10 minutes, and a Chinese company has cut this to just five minutes. At present the United Kingdom’s fastest 150kW chargers take around 30 minutes to top up the batteries of models that can charge at this speed, such as the Audi E-tron and Porsche Taycan.
Scientists at Pennsylvania State University have found that heating lithium iron phosphate batteries to 60-deg Centigrade and keeping them at this temperature makes their lithium ions move faster, but avoids the damage to the battery usually caused by heat.
According to the head of research, Professor Chao-Yang Wang, this enables batteries to be fully charged in 10 minutes.
He said: “Finally, we are achieving parity with gasoline vehicles in both cost and convenience. We have the technology for $25,000 electric cars that race like luxury sport cars, have 10-minute rechargeability and are safer than any currently on the market.
“The (batteries) will not be more expensive; in fact, they allow automakers to downsize the onboard battery while still eliminating range anxiety, thereby dramatically cutting down the vehicle battery cost.”
The batteries provide a car with a range of 250 miles, and according to Wang they can be recharged 2500 times without battery degradation.
