The hassle of charging an EV may be putting many off making the leap and purchasing an electric vehicle, but that worry may become a thing of the past according to researchers.
While the development of the lithium-ion battery has been hailed as a major development in the search for cleaner energy, the buying public are still concerned that they will be left short of power and have to take an eon to recharge the car’s battery.
But in the month that three pre eminent scientists were awarded a Nobel prize for their work in the field of batteries, a new study has given hope that the same batteries could be charged in super-fast times.
Quicker and easier charge times will mean that cars get back on the road quicker, and according to Dr Chao-Yang Wang from Pennsylvania State University will change the face of EV travel.
“If we have a ubiquitous fast-charging infrastructure on the roadside, drivers need no longer to worry about the cruise range. After driving 200-300 miles per charge, one can pick up another 200-300 miles by charging for 10 minutes,” Wang said in The Guardian.
The research conducted by the Pennsylvania State University is still some way from being a reality, and there are some question marks over whether the batteries will adapt to existing chargers - but with a Tesla Model S currently taking 40 minutes to charge, it offers much hope that a 10 minute charge can speed up the change.
“We can charge batteries of different sizes with the same [charging] time as long as the charge current increases proportionally with the battery size,” said Wang. “For car battery of 150 amp hours, a fast charge station would have to provide a 900 amp current for 10 minutes.”