No one is against virtue and everyone aspires to do their fair share for the environment by opting for an electric car. That said, some people are still hesitant due to a few sources of irritation.
We note the cost of purchasing the vehicle, of course, but also certain technologies which do not yet compete with the practical aspect and, above all, the speed of gasoline cars. However, one of the inconveniences remains the battery recharge time, which does not suit everyone.
We can understand it. In the case of level 1 electric vehicle battery chargers, those most frequently found in consumers’ homes, recharging an electric battery can take several hours. This is considerable.
By using a Tesla Supercharger, you can certainly reduce this time significantly with a charging time of around 20 minutes. But things could still change.
At least that’s what the British firm Nyobolt says, which claims that its electric car battery can now be recharged in just five minutes, only twice the time it takes to fill up your vehicle with gasoline at the pump. For a range of around 250 km. Really ?
Nyobolt is actually working on a technology that goes a little in the opposite direction to the technologies that are currently popular. Nowadays, automakers are trying to make electric car batteries bigger so that the vehicle’s range is longer before needing to recharge its battery. However, the British company thinks otherwise. It reduces the size of the battery and provides a shorter recharge time.
Nyobolt is currently developing a 35 kWh battery that would go from a 10% charge to an 80% charge in just over four and a half minutes. All this with a battery which, moreover, would not show any degradation.
This battery, rather practical, we will agree, is the result of in-depth research carried out both in the United Kingdom and in the United States. Moreover, we indicate that it would already be ready and scalable.
Tested and approved
These new batteries were tested in the Nyobolt EV prototype, an electric sports car weighing 2,755 pounds, which is little compared to the more than 5,000 pounds that a Tesla Model X weighs.
The British company is therefore banking on lighter vehicles, cheaper to build and which would have a lower carbon footprint. The project has something to appeal to electric car manufacturers, we agree. No surprise that the company claims to be in talks with eight manufacturers.
However, it is better to wait a little longer before rejoicing. The news may excite Europeans, but North Americans can expect to be patient. The fact is that the batteries we use here, in most electric vehicles, are 85 kWh. This is quite a bit larger than the 35 kWh battery used in Europe.
On the other hand, if the recipe is successful on smaller batteries, the manufacturer could well manage to adapt to our vehicles one day. It is to be hoped.
We’re talking about North Americans, but even Europeans will have to wait a little longer. The British company may say it is already ready for manufacturing, but it will have no choice but to go there on a small scale, because yes, there is a bone.
The problem is that Nyobolt’s battery depends on chemical niobium, a material that is rare in terms of extraction, compared to the materials currently used for battery production.
We can conclude that the technology is promising, but not quite here. Moreover, some questions remain, in particular about the lifespan of these batteries. With fast recharges, will the battery life be shorter? The question arises when we observe the lifespan of our cell phone batteries…
According to the British company, tests reveal that its battery could reach more than 4,000 fast charge cycles. This is enough, we add, to cover a distance of 600,000 miles (965,600 kilometers), while maintaining more than 80% battery capacity. However, these are independent tests, which are not cited, and therefore not verifiable.
In short, several factors remain to be considered and observed. But one thing is certain, the idea of the fast-charging battery is in the air, it is already a dream and it will have something to seduce when it appears on the market, whether in the short, medium or long term. long term.