Fear Busters
Dmitrii Blium
Problem and solution
The most frequent complaint about electric cars is they take too long to charge. However, this argument illustrates the lack of EV manufacturers' efforts in educating their buyers.
The average American, for example, drives 25 miles a day or less. At that rate, most EVs on the market can go a week without charging and then get back to a full charge with one overnight charging session.
The argument breaks down for apartment and condo dwellers with no access to an EV charger at home. For them, charging times are more of an issue. The EV industry, however, is not idle. In addition to the growing number of charging stations, new technologies appear to help the EV revolution.
One of those is from a Chinese EV manufacturer, GAC. Next month, it promises to start selling an Aion V battery-electric SUV that can charge a depleted battery to 80% capacity in a lightning-fast 8 minutes. The company claims the car will have a range of 1000 kilometers NEDC, the wildly optimistic standard used in China. EPA (US standard) range would probably be a little more than half of that, but still — 500+ miles of range and an 8 minute charging time sounds like removing the range anxiety from the masses.
Technology
In February, Aion announced it had created new battery technology that uses graphene instead of graphite for the anode, a breakthrough that unlocks fast charging. According to reports, the graphene battery has been subjected to torture tests that include being penetrated by a bullet without exploding or catching fire.
For those worried that such rapid charging will degrade the battery, Aion says not to worry. Assuming charging at room temperature, it claims the battery should last for up to 1 million kilometers.
Last year GAC had already stated that it had solved one of the main problems of graphene-based batteries: the costs. Graphene initially cost up to a few hundred dollars per gram, according to the automaker. With the 3DG production technology, it was possible to reduce the costs to a tenth of the conventional process.
The future
The graphene-based battery with such fast charging requires a new charger type, the so-called 6C charger. Aion says it will have 100 of those installed by the end of this year. In a country with about 1.5 billion people, it is quite a few, as we understand. So, the Aion breakthrough will take a while to trickle down to the masses.
However, as history teaches us, once a breakthrough happens, others are quick to follow. Moreover, perception is reality. Ultra speedy charging may be largely irrelevant to most EV drivers, but if more people believe the charging issue has been solved, that could allow them to embrace owning an electric car when they were afraid to before.
💡 Article on Cleantechnica