A rapid recharge that goes a long way

Slow charging is the biggest technical barrier to the mass adoption of electric vehicles.
Charging an electric vehicle battery in less than 10 minutes could be a reality by year’s end. That’s the hope of GBatteries, one of several companies devoted to radically improving charging rates.
Fast charging is a useful feature for smartphones. But for EVs it’s a necessary goal if they are to be viable in large quantities on our roads. Motorists are anxious enough queuing up at a service station for petrol, but with loads of EVs around, if a refill takes four to 12 hours, queues would last for days. Even being third in line at a Tesla supercharger station for a 30-minute re-juice would be prohibitive.
GBatteries is backed by some big investors such as Airbus Ventures, Initialized Capital, SV Angel and Y Combinator.
GBatteries COO and co-founder Tim Sherstyuk says slow charging is the biggest technical barrier to the mass adoption of electric vehicles, because everybody has “range anxiety”.
While it’s possible now to recharge a phone lithium battery in five minutes, you’d almost destroy it or drastically cut its lifespan, he adds.
GBatteries’ approach is to use artificial intelligence and monitor the battery’s state and composition, and adjust the charging rate.
“The technology monitors what’s happening inside of the battery cell or pack in real time, then adjusts the charging currents in real time, according to various kind of parameters that are measured. You can think of it as an AI,” Sherstyuk tells The Australian.
“By doing this, we’re able to decrease the amount of universal chemistry that happens inside of batteries, which is what causes them to lose capacity over time.”
He says you could charge an iPhone battery in five minutes, but you would reduce its lifespan from 800 cycles to between 50 and 100 cycles.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, GBatteries demonstrated charging a standard power tool battery to 60 per cent in five minutes, and 100 per cent in 10 minutes.
Sherstyuk and his engineer father, Nick, began investigating fast-charging algorithms in 2012 before GBatteries launched in 2014. Initially it used algorithms to extend battery life without implementing fast charging. Batteries that typically lasted about 250 cycles were alive after 600 cycles.
Electric car batteries are more complex. GBatteries has tested single-cell car batteries and is working with car manufacturers in the US, Germany and Japan, along with battery manufacturers.
The company is scaling equipment and infrastructure to large batteries.
“Our target is to enable an electric vehicle to charge as fast as it takes to fill up the tank of gas,” Sherstyuk says.
Israeli firm StoreDot also has the aim of charging as fast as you can fill up at a servo. It is using organic “proprietary organic compounds” and a new battery structure to make this possible.
StoreDot says it has adapted its battery technology to phone batteries.
“By achieving a remarkably rapid charging rate that is up to 100 times faster than any other mobile device battery, StoreDot has enabled charging a smartphone in 60 seconds,” it says. “The innovative new generation of Li-ion batteries entirely redesigns the battery architecture and materials.”
StoreDot says it has sizeable industry support and is building a “OneGiga” manufacturing facility to build its EV Flash batteries, starting in 2022. Supporters include BP, which reportedly invested $US20 million ($28m).
This week Shell announced it will sell batteries in the Australian market after its acquisition of German home solar battery supplier Sonnen.
Porsche and BMW are unveiling a prototype 450kW electric car charger complete with cooling system that delivers 100km of charge in just three minutes, and an 80pc battery refill in 15 minutes, according to a report in December.