Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University in the USA claim to have developed a process which dramatically speeds up recharging of electric vehicle batteries.
In a paper filed with technology journal Joule, the university claims it can add over 300km of driving range to an electric vehicle with just ten minutes of recharging time. Battery charging and range are key issues affecting the desirability of electric vehicles, current Tesla models require 30 minutes to achieve
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Raising the battery temperature to 60 deg C before recharging allows for the rapid intake of some 400 kilowatts of energy without causing damage to the lithium plating of the batteries' anodes, thus extending the battery's cycle-life according to Chao-Yang Wang – a mechanical engineer at The Pennsylvania State University,
Rick Sachleben, a member of the American Chemical Society, claims that scaling up the design may take up to ten years, however. Given the huge amount of energy transfer involved, any manufacturer would need to ensure that rapidly raising battery temperature can be done stably and safely, without the danger of causing an explosion.
The automotive industry is mostly focused on developing lithium-ion batteries that are cheaper, safer and with greater energy density.
