If you believe, as I do, that the next generation of commonly available vehicles needs to severely limit or eliminate the inclusion of the internal combustion engine, then the latest battery announcement from Toshiba should give you great joy.
Toshiba claims to be ready to begin field testing a battery in early next year with a 90% recharge in just 5 minutes. First target is industrial machinery, but Toshiba hopes to expand into the automotive space quickly. If adopted widely and the claims hold up, purely electric vehicles for long trips would become acceptable to a very large portion of consumers. No indication of pricing for the batteries or modules.
via AutoBlogGreen and TMC.
Toshiba claims to be ready to begin field testing a battery in early next year with a 90% recharge in just 5 minutes. First target is industrial machinery, but Toshiba hopes to expand into the automotive space quickly. If adopted widely and the claims hold up, purely electric vehicles for long trips would become acceptable to a very large portion of consumers. No indication of pricing for the batteries or modules.
via AutoBlogGreen and TMC.
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2 comments:
Something to keep in mind about these amazing fast recharge times is the battery capacity and available recharge current. A typical EV car might be equipped with 150 Ah of battery capacity. Charging that in five minutes is equivalent to the current draw from an electric oven, so it's not like you can just plug your car into any electric outlet. That might be why Toshiba is talking about industrial applications with this.
Yeah, I was thinking that at the time and should have explicitly pointed it out in my post. Charging from a 110v 15A or 20A vs a 220V 30A is quite a difference from what I remember when looking at electric vehicle conversions.
But, to followup on that point, a dedicated electric recharging service station could provide that sort of connection. I'm not sure, but I guess the challenge would be making sure the charging circuit and batteries work equally well with high current fast recharge and low current and slow home recharge. I see this as a gateway to making electric vehicles acceptable to the masses who are in a hurry and remove the hybrid portion of the vehicle.
Thanks for pointing it out Fritz! (and I love cyclicio.us)
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