CATL
CATL battery from an MG4 vehicle from Chinese manufacturer SAIC
Long charging times have been blamed for the delay in the electric vehicle revolution, but that could be about to change — thanks to new fast-charging battery technologies. And China’s battery industry is 10 years ahead of its Western rivals.
Charging times of between 20 minutes and 50 hours — much longer than it takes to fill up with gasoline — are often cited as one of the main reasons drivers show up. reluctant to opt for vehicles electrical.
But automakers and startups around the world are now trying to build batteries for electric vehicles that can charge in less than 10 minutes — or even 5.
“That It will change the whole experience of the customer”, says the executive vice president of the battery startup, Ramesh Narasimhan.
“The loading it would no longer be a hassle and requiring downtime of 40 minutes to an hour, in order to have the same experience that we have today in a fuel supply situation”, he adds.
They suggest that this dream could be getting closer and closer.
In August, Tesla’s Chinese rival presented new batteries for its model 007 which are, according to the company, the fastest charging in the world, capable of charging from 10 to 80% in just over 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, the Chinese battery giant presented its battery in April Shenxing Plus — which, according to the company, provides 600 km of autonomy after 10 minutes charging.
Second Rory McNulty, product director at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, the advances in battery chemistry and software design have allowed manufacturers like CATL to optimize their batteries for faster charging without damaging them.
Furthermore, new battery modelssuch as silicon-based and solid-state batteries expected to hit the market in the coming years, will accelerate the shift to faster charging.
“We are on the verge of introducing new materialswhich intrinsically should load faster”, notes McNulty.
Nyobolt demonstrated its technology in a prototype tram in June. The battery successfully charged from 10% to 80% in 4 minutes and 37 seconds, reaching a range of 195 km after four minutes.
The UK-based startup is in talks with eight companies to incorporate its technology into high performance electric vehicles and expects to see them in passenger vehicles by the end of the decade.
Fully charged
The rollout of ultra-fast charging electric vehicle batteries will not be without challenges.
According to Ramesh Narasimhan, car manufacturers are currently facing a dilemma between building electric cars with large batteries that can travel great distances or give priority to smaller batteries fast charging with shorter autonomy.
As batteries are by far the most expensive part of an electric vehicle, smaller batteries would mean cheaper vehicles, notes Narasimhan.
A lack of batteries is another factor which has deterred some consumers from opting for electricity.
The other big obstacle is the charging infrastructure. Batteries that can be charged in 5-10 minutes require 350kw chargers high power to achieve maximum charging speeds.
“Charging infrastructure is the next frontier,” says McNulty. “He can have the best battery in the worldwhich can be charged in five minutes, but whether the charging port or infrastructure charging capacity does not have the capacity to match this, then it will always be limited”, he added.
China advances at full speed
One thing is almost certain: the first widespread ultra-fast charging electric vehicle batteries they will probably be Chinese.
China dominates the global battery industry, with companies such as CATL, a and Zeekr leading the way in building batteries for electric vehicles with greater range and faster charging times.
“China’s battery industry is 10 years ahead of its western rivals. They built an entire infrastructure around batteries that is practically impossible to replicate“, explains the former Aston Martin and Nissan executive Andy Palmeroften called “The Godfather of EVs”.
Much of China’s success in battery manufacturing is due to your strategy long-time industrialist, who took the government to heavily subsidize manufacturers locations in the last decade.
As a result, the East Asian superpower now has a stranglehold on the global battery supply chain. McNulty calculates that China dominates at this moment 95% of the global graphite marketan essential mineral for electric vehicle batteries.
China also has the advantage of scale. The Chinese market represented 60% of global electric vehicle registrations in 2023, and the country quickly built its charging infrastructure to keep up with demand.
“The bottlenecks in charging infrastructure that were a problem a few years ago they are no longer. There are fast chargers everywhere. I probably have 10 of them around my house,” he explains. Cosimo Riesanalyst at Shanghai-based Trivium China.
Ries adds that the brutal competition in the electric vehicle market of China is pressuring automakers to reduce charging times and launch fast charging models at lower prices.
“The competition is so fierce that whoever does not present faster charging batteries at cheaper prices will not be able to survive”, says Ries.
“We are starting to see fast charging advancing into the segment average or even lower of the markets. I think we are probably much closer to charging in 5 minutes than expected, at least in China”, he adds.
