New battery tech from China still doesn't solve the 'charging conundrum'

https://www.drive.com.au/news/new-super-fast-charging-battery-tech-could-finally-make-electric-utes-and-vans-viable/

The charging conundrum is simple - to pump charge into an EV faster you require a larger supply of electricity to the charger. Doesn't matter what kind of battery tech the vehicle uses.

Want to charge 10 x faster - then you need to supply the charger infrastructure with 10x the flow of electricity and the charger must be able to deliver that safely to the vehicle and vehicle's own battery management system must be able to handle it.

Want to charge 10 vehicles 10x faster - then you need to supply the charger infrastructure 100x the flow of electricity and the charger network must be able to safely distribute and deliver that safely to all vehicles at the same time.

There is no escape from this and no battery technology gets around it. The energy to charge has to come from somewhere and if you want to charge faster you need more of it in the same span of time. There is only a finite amount of electricity available.

Cult of Net Zero pundits never talk about this aspect that is quietly hidden by all the spin.

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whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

The clear answer is large scale battery banks fed by renewable, solar or wind power. But these things take time. In a centralised economy. (Like China for instance) a govet program can develop and seed these installations quickly and the running costs are negligable. However, in a profit motivated conomy, thats just not happening unless the corporate tax rate is high enough to motivate investments of that kind..😷

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MrBrownstone · 46-50, M

@whowasthatmaskedman You were wrong about masks 6 years ago and your failure on knowledge continues.

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@MrBrownstone OK. I was prepared to take you seriously. However the mask crack puts the whole thing in perspective. You have a nice day..😷

ElwoodBlues · M

@zonavar68 As I said elsewhere, we are recently returned from Norway where we rented an EV for several nights. The fast chargers there advertise 150-250kW; for our rental car with a 55kWh battery you have time to snack while it charges. Tesla super chargers deliver up to 500kW. As I said elsewhere, many of these charge points have a big storage battery unit to buffer between supply and demand.

You talk about risks of heat and damage, but gasoline filling stations have risks as well. Are you suggesting that delivering 500kW to a car is riskier than pumping flammable gasoline??

P.S. I have an plug-in hybrid in the garage now. I also have solar on the roof and a battery in the basement. All my errands & local driving are electric, and my power bills in the summer are quite low. I personally expanded the US generating and delivery capacity with no taxpayer dollars or rate increases involved. And I am not alone!!

swirlie · 31-35, F

Funny you say that because for as long as I've been driving which is 15 years, the size of the rubber hose at the gas pump at every gas station in Canada has always remained the same, which is a 2 inch outside diameter and less inside diameter by about a quarter of an inch give or take.

The bottom line is, no matter how many cars got put on the road over the last 100 years and no matter how much oil Canada pumped out of the ground, the size of the deliver hose at each gas pump has remained the same since the 1930s I'm told and nobody has ever complained about the time it takes to fill their gas tank with liquid petrol!

samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

It simply requires investment in the future. T he US electrical grid is essentially the same as it was 50 years ago. It needs updating!

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samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

@whowasthatmaskedman which, corruption or regulation?

whowasthatmaskedman · 70-79, M

@samueltyler2 Shall we call it corrupt regulation? The subsidies to the oil companies and the barriers to entry for the renewable energy operators..😷

samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

@whowasthatmaskedman well said.

ElwoodBlues · M

My wife & I went on vacation to Norway last month and our trip included about 7 nights with a rented electric car. The fast charging locations there often have a big storage battery unit to solve exactly the problem you describe. The big storage battery can charge continuously 24/7 and discharge big pulses as cars come in. This pic is from the web but it gives you the idea.

samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

@ElwoodBlues the rest of the world alis leap years agead if the US.

swirlie · 31-35, F

That would explain why Canada is increasing it's power generation exponentially over the next 3 years using mini nuclear generating options, mainly because Canada is going EV with cars.

Canada will also be supplying the USA with electricity which Canada currently does right now anyway. Canada is doing this because the USA is not upgrading it's electrical grid infrastructure because the country has no money for that upgrade at the Federal level.

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