A FULL EV CHARGE IN MINUTES

Charging an electric car as fast as filling a tank of gas

Anne-Muriel Brouet, January 20, 2016 (Physorg)

“Electric cars will only be truly competitive when it doesn't take longer to charge them than it does to fill a gas tank. The storage capacity of batteries is improving exponentially, but the power grid is the weak link…EPFL researchers have found the solution: intermediate storage…It only takes a minute and a half to put enough fuel into the tank of a diesel car to run for around 1,000 kilometers. After being charged for the same amount of time, the best electric cars will only go six kilometers. The only way to make the charging process faster is to increase the power flow going in. But such a quick charge would require 4.5 MW of power – equivalent to 4,500 washing machines. This would bring down the power grid…

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“Intermediate storage is achieved using a lithium iron battery the size of a shipping container, which is constantly charging at a low level of power from the grid. When a car needs a quick charge, the buffer battery promptly transfers the stored electricity to the vehicle. The grid is not even used…To prove the system works, the researchers at the EPFL Energy Center and Industrial Electronics Lab built a demonstrator…It draws power from the low-voltage grid and, in the space of 15 minutes, provides the 20 to 30 kWh needed to charge a standard electric car battery…” click here for more

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