Waiting for the battery to charge is one of the annoying things about driving an electric car, and a British firm may have found a solution.
The charging time for this electric car battery is less than five minutes.
In its first live demonstration last week, Cambridge-based Nybolt’s new 35kWh lithium-ion battery was charged from 10% to 80% in just over four and a half minutes.
That is a lot quicker than the twenty minutes or so that some electric cars now require when utilizing a fast charger, such as a Tesla Supercharger (TSLA). Additionally, it is a lot closer to the two minutes that the typical gasoline-powered car takes to fill up.
“Our in-depth investigation in the US and UK has revealed a new battery technology that is currently ready and scalable,” co-founder and CEO of Nyobolt Sai Shivareddy stated in a statement on Friday. “We are making it possible for new products and services that are currently deemed unfeasible or unviable to become electrified.”
According to the firm, Nyobolt’s technology is the culmination of ten years of study conducted by Clare Grey, a battery scientist at the University of Cambridge, and Shivareddy, a Cambridge graduate. Its batteries are designed to produce less heat, which is essential to their capacity to be charged extremely quickly without significantly affecting their lifespan. Additionally, it makes them safer because a lithium-ion battery that has overheated may catch fire and explode.
Furthermore, faster electron transmission is made possible by the materials employed to create the anodes of the batteries.
Eight electric car manufacturers are presently in negotiations with Nyobolt to purchase its batteries. The battery is substantially smaller at 35 kWh than the 85 kWh of a more conventional American electric vehicle (EV). However, the method might eventually be applied to larger battery packs.
One significant disadvantage of EVs now on the market is their comparatively lengthy charging durations. They are a hassle for owners who can’t charge their automobiles at home and slow down road trips.
According to Paul Marchment, a consultant at Arval, a vehicle leasing expert owned by BNP Paribas, Nyobolt’s innovation—tested in the company’s sports car prototype—is especially encouraging for commercial EV fleets and drivers who depend on electric cars for their work.
The absence of public charging infrastructure, however, is another obstacle preventing EV adoption from speeding up in the US and Europe.
The news regarding Nyobolt’s battery, which was tested on a track on Thursday using a 350kW DC ultra-rapid charger of the kind that is difficult to find on UK roads, was welcomed by Jack Evans, a driving specialist at Blackball Media.
“There needs to be an increase in the provision of ultra-rapid chargers in order for this to really make an impact, as the units used to charge the Nyobolt battery are few and far between in the UK,” he stated.
By the end of the decade, Shivareddy told CNN, he expects to “pretty much have them everywhere” as the number of fast chargers rises in both the US and the EU.
Virtually all of the major US automakers have committed to making their vehicles compatible with Tesla’s charging technology, known as the North American Charging Standard, and three out of every four fast chargers in the US are Tesla Superchargers. According to the firm, Nyobolt, its battery can be charged using a supercharger.
“Our goal is to make refueling and charging times equal, and we would love to collaborate with Tesla and other top manufacturers to realize this vision,” Shivareddy stated. “In order to roll out a substantial number of these high-power chargers and the grid/off-grid power supply, industry collaboration would be required.”
Not yet prepared for prime time
According to Nyobolt’s announcement on Friday, independent testing of the company’s batteries by a “leading global manufacturer” revealed that they can withstand over 4,000 fast-charge cycles, or 600,000 miles (965,600 kilometers), while maintaining more than 80% of their capacity. “This is a significant multiple of the warranties of EV batteries that are currently in use on the road.”
Former engineer and e-mobility specialist William Kephart of consultancy P3 Group stated that while EV batteries similar to those produced by Nyobolt might “theoretically” be charged as quickly as the company claims, producing such batteries on an industrial scale remained a hurdle.
Niobium is a key component of Nyobolt’s batteries, but as Kephart said, only an estimated 83,000 metric tons (94,500 tons) were mined globally last year. In contrast, a projected 1.6 million metric tons (1.8 million tons) of graphite, which is frequently used as the anode material in lithium-ion batteries, were produced in 2023.
Furthermore, he told CNN that there are still “a lot of unknowns” with niobium battery technology. “The industry is not seeing it as a scalable technology just yet, but they will figure it out,” he continued.
In addition to sluggish charging, “range anxiety,” or the worry that the vehicle won’t have enough battery life to go where it’s going—and the higher average cost of EVs relative to new conventional automobiles—are further barriers to EV ownership in the US and Europe.
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