The automotive industry has been talking about a revolutionary battery with a solid electrolyte for a long time, but no car company has yet managed to start mass production of electric cars equipped in this way. In contrast to today’s predominant battery technology, which contains an electrolyte in the form of a liquid or gel, it would bring several fundamental advantages. Drivers would recharge in a significantly shorter time, use a longer range, perhaps even over a thousand kilometers, and the battery would also offer a significantly longer service life and greater safety. That is why most of the big car companies are dedicated to the development of this technology. And some are already carefully planning its production.
At the beginning of the year, the Volkswagen Group announced the promising results of its PowerCo battery division. It successfully tested a new battery with a solid electrolyte from American car battery developer QuantumScape, a company in which VW has been investing for years. The battery went through more than a thousand charging cycles in the laboratory, i.e. a similar load as if a car equipped with it had traveled about half a million kilometers. At the same time, its total capacity decreased by only five percent – today’s batteries degrade several times faster.
The heads of both companies talked about an almost ageless battery, super-fast charging, very encouraging numbers and that they want to launch the product “as soon as possible”. However, they did not share the details of the technological solution, let alone in which models the battery would eventually be installed.
Toyota was more specific, which stirred up the debate about so-called solid-state batteries again last summer. The ones being tested by the Japanese giant could cover up to 1,200 kilometers and reduce the recharging time to ten minutes. At the same time, today’s ordinary electric cars allow drivers to travel approximately five hundred kilometers on a single charge.
Continue reading by creating a free account or logging in
Continue
2024-01-18 13:00:00
#Range #thousand #electric #car #charged #minutes #Hope #grows #stronger
