New battery tech -- 80% charge in 1 minute

[johnpowers]

This thing sounds like it is destined for use in a Segway!

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0503/05032903tosh1minbatt.asp


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Today, Toshiba announced a "breakthrough" in lithium-ion battery technology. The new technology reportedly allows a battery to recharge to 80% of the battery's capacity in one minute -- approximately 60 times faster than typical lithium ion batteries.

Other advantages listed include losing only 1% of capacity after 1000 charging cycles and the ability to function at low temperatures.

The battery will be available in commercial products starting in 2006. While initially available in automotive and industrial sectors, they list mobile phones as a possibility.

[Hauptagon]

Wow... and it will be launched for hybrid cars next year! Although, I don't really see why a hybrid would benefit from one as much as a purely electric vehicles. Nonetheless, if this becomes a big thing I could easily see fully electric cars making a comeback (or rather a first coming). The charge time is potentially faster than the time needed to refuel a car!

And of course, it will have to come standard on Segways. ;)

-Justin

"We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams." -From Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

[X-man]

The way battery technology is rapidly advancing, it appears that the chicken (Segway) definiteiy came before the egg (battery).

For the naysayers:
Before you ask me to give up my lifestyle, show me that yours works.
"Polly Hammon"
Bob

[SegwayUtah]

For hybrids, they need to be able to dump vast amounts of power back into the battery quickly (during regenerative braking, etc.) This will reduce the amount of friction needed to slow the car down, and increase fuel economy (if there is waste now).

Also, it could potentially lower the cost of hybrids and make them more mainstream--while increasing their overall service life.

For the HT, it would be awesome to have 25-mile batteries that could recharge in just a minute or three.

Chris

[woodenapple]

This sounds almost too good to be true!

I wonder if Segway has a contract with Vallence that will keep us ordering batteries from them for a certain amount of time.

I wonder if this new technology would make larger or smaller batteries for a segway application.

Of course, by the time these new batteries are available, there will probably be another announcement by someone else of an even further major improvement in battery technology!

Rodney

May all your days be Segway days!

[SegwayUtah]

I wonder if it's possible to combine the safety of Valence's batteries with the quick-charge ability of this new technology.

Also, charging the HT batteries to 80% in one minute would require a _huge_ draw of power. If it takes 0.5 killowatt-hours to charge an HT now, it should take 1.0 killowatt-hours to charge an HT with the Lithium-ions.

To charge 0.8 killowatt-hours in 1 minute, that would be 800 watts * 60 minutes = 48,000 killowatt-minutes.

Wait--is that math right? The HT would have to draw 48,000 watts to charge 80% in 1 minute? Wowsers.

Chris

[wayne]

Just go all 12volt with pop-in batteries would be good. I know the 12 volt batteries would be cheaper.
I still recharge my Seg with a cheap 12 volt battery from time to time now.



wayne

[bystander]

Since we're all speculating about something that seems too good to be true, let's not worry about trivial matters like instantaneous current draw.

If these new batteries discharge as quickly as they charge, one could have a "battery-bank" charger (drawing 1200 watts for 40 minutes from your house's AC) which charges a large set of batteries within itself.

When you connect your electric vehicle to the "battery-bank" charger, it discharges the charger's batteries into the vehicle's battery in a few minutes, the limiting factor set by what ever would be considered safe for the power connectors involved.

So you might be able to charge in 5 or 10 minutes after "accumulating" power from the wall socket for 40 minutes or more.

[Mr. Protocol]

At these relatively low cell voltages, the aggregate current draw for such a rapid charge would be enormous. We're talking giant copper bus-bars here. Inside a car, surrounded by hefty insulation, you could get away with that. In a home setup, though, you'd pop every breaker in the place instantly.

In thinking about it, I tend to agree with an earlier poster: this rapid charge rate is not intended to charge the battery by plugging it into a wall at home. It's probably intended to handle the output of a hefty regenerative braking system. It may also be intended to charge the car by plugging it into a public charging system, like a gas station, where you could put a power installation hefty enough to do the job and get your car charged in about the time it now takes to fill the gas tank.

But no way a home power system could dump that much energy that fast, unless it were purpose-built for the job.

[bystander]

If you plug in to your electrical oven socket, you might have a chance.

Here's a link to an electric oven (http://salestores1.com/whrb24seclel.html)

It says it uses "208/240 volt, 60 Hz., 30 amps"

That would be in the ballpark of 7000 watts. 7000 watts would charge a 800 watt-hour load in about 7 minutes at 100% efficiency, or about 10 minutes in the real world.

[tomamil]

Hey folks, hold on -- just because it could accept such a charge rate does not mean it requires such a rate. Instead of a one-minute charge, how about a 10 or 20-minute charge?

I think the real lesson of this is how rapidly battery technology is beginning to move.

Tom A. Milstein

Segways should be everywhere by now!

[SegwayUtah]

Charging in 20 minutes would be 2,400 watts for 20 minutes then?

I would love a fast charge :)

Chris

[X-man]

It might be worthwhile to live near high tension wires afterall.

For the naysayers:
Before you ask me to give up my lifestyle, show me that yours works.
"Polly Hammon"
Bob

[jrunner192]

If you notice in the article it says that this will most likely be used in hybrid cars first. Lets say the average hybrid car has a 90hp engine in combination with the electric motor, the 90hp converted to Watts is around 68,000 Watts. That is the very reason that it will be more useful in hybrid cars to begin with. The engine coupled with the regenerative braking can easily meet the power demands of the charging system for these batteries. For household cases, such as charging an HT with these batteries, as mentioned above, the charging duration would just have to be increased but it would still be quite short.

Jeff