Most of the stories about improved battery technology and ever increasing seeds of charging seem to emanate from China and the USA, so it's good to know that the UK now looks set to be a major player too.
Twelve months ago, Nyobolt promised an EV that could be charged in under six minutes. It now has a working prototype on the road that gains 120 miles of range in just four minutes - using existing charging infrastructure.
An electric car battery developed by UK start-up Nyobolt has successfully charged from 10 percent to 80 percent in four minutes and 37 seconds in its first live demonstration. It was achieved with a specially-built concept sports car on a test track in central England, and is part of industry-wide efforts to get electric vehicles (EVs) charging more quickly - thereby eliminating so-called "range anxiety".
By comparison, an existing Tesla supercharger can charge a car battery to 80 percent in 15 to 20 minutes.
“Developing technology that enables people to charge more quickly, which chimes with the time it currently takes to re-fuel a car – is really important," says Paul Shearing, Professor of Sustainable Energy Engineering at Oxford University.
The sports car the Nyobolt battery was fitted to - which was tested over two days last week - achieved a range of 120 miles after four minutes.
Dr Sai Shivareddy, co-founder of Nyobolt, told the BBC that it was “a big milestone for electrification” and that he was pleased with the results - but admitted that the tests had been “nerve-wracking”. The demo was carried out live in front of an invited audience of industry professionals for the first time, with a few glitches on the day.
Challenges included the UK heatwave, a failure in the concept car’s cooling system, and a standard on-site charger that was not made by Nyobolt. These factors, the company claims, prevented it from duplicating laboratory results, in which it says the battery can charge from 0 percent to fully charged in six minutes. Nyobolt also claims it has minimised degradation - saying its batteries still charges to 80 percent after 4,000 cycles.
The company hopes its batteries will start to become commercially available to EV manufacturers next year.