The main holdup for electric vehicles is their limited use, bookended by the fact that the typical EV cant even go 100 miles between charges, and echarging many EVs requires hours even on a larger Level 2 charger. But a group of Korean scientists have reportedly developed a lithium-ion battery that can be recharged between 30 and 120 times faster than current battery technology.
In other words, you could recharge a car like the Nissan Leaf in about one minute.
Building A Battery Like The Human Body
Because current batteries charge from the outside in, larger batteries take longer to recharge. But researchers at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology have reportedly come up with a way with allow the whole battery to be charged at once.
This is possible thanks to a graphite-dipped cathode that is then carbonized, creating a dense-but-tiny network of conductivity throughout the battery. Picture how your blood circulatory system works, with veins of various sizes running through every inch of your body. That is how our body delivers nutrients to cells, the same way this new charging technique delivers electricity to battery cells.
Supercharged Recharging
By charging the entire battery at once, recharging time drops dramatically. The researchers report that recharge times are between 30 and 120 times faster, allowing a car-sized battery to be fully charged in minutes, not hours.
EVs still face the problem of expensive batteries with limited range, and this is hardly the first fast charging idea to grab the public interest. Ive personally written about many promising fast charging technologies that then seem to disappear off the face of the Earth.
Will this new networking method of charging be the game changer it sounds like, or just another flash in the pan?