Nissan unveils revolutionary car battery charging tech and new, highly formable ultra high tensile strength steel
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According to a report, researchers at Japan’s Kansai University, working together with Nissan boffins, have come up with tech to speed up the charging process. Currently, lithium-ion batteries can take up to eight hours to recharge fully.
In experiments, the researchers tweaked a capacitor – by using a composite made from tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide for the capacitor’s electrode instead of the usual carbon – to allow it to hold more power. Tests with the new capacitor resulted in it being able to fully recharge within 10 minutes, while maintaining nearly the same storage capacity and voltage as lithium-ion batteries, the report says.
Apparently, the new capacitor has endured repeated charging and discharging without durabiility issues, and the researchers are now planning to go further afield, utilising different materials and structures for the device, with the aim of bringing down the charge time to three minutes or less.
The report adds that it is likely to take about a decade to commercialise the technology, but the breakthrough is expected to help cut production costs for electric cars and make them more popular for drivers in a hurry...