Super skeptical here, or at least the wording is misleading as hell.<p>> The product allows users to charge a 60kWh EV battery pack with 119 miles of range in 15 minutes as compared to 15 miles in 15 minutes today.<p>> The technology works with off-the-shelf lithium ion batteries and existing fast charge infrastructure by integrating via a patented self-contained adapter on a car charge port<p>First read says that they're delivering 60kWh in 15min, or they're pumping electrons at 240kW. This is just nonsense -- most deployed DC fast chargers are 50kW... the charger companies and the OEMs are experimenting with 200kW chargers, but those are liquid cooled. So physics says this is nonsense.<p>Okay, so second read: the 60 kWh is distracting technobabble, and what they're ACTUALLY doing is "adding 119 miles of range in 15 minutes."<p>The just-announced Nissan Leaf e+ has a 62 kWh battery with 226 miles of range. When you DC Fast Charge, going from 0-80% takes about as much time as going from 80-100% (EV roadtripping is about doing frequent small charging because of this phenomenon, not one-time top-offs like with gas).<p>The Nissan Leaf e+ is about a 60 kWh battery, and if they're adding "119 miles of range in 15 minutes", that's about half the Leaf's 226 mi range, so call it "30 kWh of charge in 15 min". <i></i>That means they're charging at an average of 120kW.<i></i> Okay, now we're back within the realm of physics.<p>Note the Leaf e+'s (yet unreleased hardware) still only accepts a maximum of 100kW DC fast charging. I think jaguar has experimented with 150kW charging on the ipace (but again, liquid cooled cables).<p>So they're saying they found a way to cycle fast charging and get about a 20% improvement in average charging rate from the current kinda-top-of-the-line tech, and only for the first 50% battery capacity.<p>Not nothing, but hardly "as quickly as visiting the pump", especially since whatever tricks they use likely won't continue for the next 50% of the battery.
476mi/h of charging isn’t gorundbreaking. Aston Martin, Tesla and Porsche already charge at those speeds or faster.<p><a href="https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1118575_gm-working-on-ultra-fast-charging-system-for-chevy-bolt-ev" rel="nofollow">https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1118575_gm-working-on-u...</a><p>I believe their “secret sauce” is allowing existing packs which charge slower to get “up to speed”. If so, that’s a pretty limited market as it’s likely that within a few years, all EVs sold will charge faster than the listed speeds. They’ll likely have a maximum tota addressable market of a few hundred thousand cars with only a few thousand real consumers. Most people buying electric cars with slower chargers are doing so because those vehicles fit their lifestyle and wouldn’t have a massive incentive to buy a new charger.
That sounds like a cry to be bought by the highest bidder. Just of the shelf hardware and some pixie dust, err, "AI". Sure thing they'll find some car company that will sink some millions into their company.
This is a straight up lie right?<p>My car (2017 Honda Accord) has a 500+ mile range on a tank of gas. It'd take over an hour to charge to 500 miles.<p>Even at 15 minutes that's a lie. It takes no more than 2-3 minutes of actual pumping to fill my 500+ mile tank of gas.
<i>The system uses AI to optimize the charging systems in electric cars.</i><p>Here's one thing that stinks about current/last gen electric cars. I drove with my wife from my apartment in Nob Hill to Santa Cruz, using up about 92% of my range. I was able to find a charger and get fully recharged for my trip back. All of that is fine. What was disturbing, was that while I was climbing those initial hills out of Santa Cruz, my range figure dipped way below my miles to go figure. As I left behind that initial climb, my range figure then went comfortably above my miles to go. This is one place where some judicious AI could help. (Along with integration with GPS/Maps and destination information. I should also update my electric car to technology ca. 2019.)
There is a fix for slow charging that is literally as fast as filling a tank but nobody wants to use it. (I assume it is the same reason that there are pages and pages of battery improvements that never make it to market.)<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_battery" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_battery</a>
This could definitely revolutionize the electric car market by removing one of the main complaints, slow charge time. The other pending issues for even greater mass adoption are availability of charging stations & range. If charge time decreases, the turnover of cars at stations could dramatically increase thereby improving the economics of charging stations. We could see more charging stations then and more quickly remove these barriers.<p>Has this AI approach been used in other charging applications? Curious to hear more details on what's going on behind the scenes.
If you could recharge while waiting in line for fast food, that would eliminate the need to ever go to a 'gas station' at all. These guys should partner with sonic or something, drive-in style.
UBeam et al have demonstrated that flat out ignoring physics can be an extremely reliable way to raise funding and score press visibility. Here’s hoping this won’t end up on the same list.
If this works as advertised, it’s super cool. However, my anecdotal experience suggests that things that charge faster heat up, and I know that my phone warms up significantly on with the “fast charger” it came with. Knowing that batteries are potentially very volatile and prone to exploding and leaking, how safe is this technology?
Are there going to be any issues with peak demand charges from utilities making fast charging cost prohibitive? I have to imagine that pulling that much power from the grid will either be very expensive or will require some grid upgrades to prevent issues.
The obsession with fast charging is getting tiresome.<p>Here in Norway we have more electric cars per head than anywhere else and most people wake up to a fully charged car.<p>It is really rare to need to charge the car at a public charger unless you have nowhere off road to park your car. What is most needed in most places is somewhere to charge the car overnight or while you are at work. Such chargers need no new technology, no extra infrastructure beyond a simple socket in a post beside the road or in each parking space in car parks.
If a car's battery system is not set up for this kind of a charge rate (IE: it maxes at 7.2 amp 240 volt level 2), there is no way their system can just attach to your port and charge your car faster. There are on-board controllers etc. that are controlled (for good reason), by the car/manufacturer that would need to be bypassed.