A British startup may have found a solution to one of the biggest frustrations of electric vehicle ownership: slow charging times.
Nyobolt, a company based in Cambridge, has created a new 35kWh lithium-ion battery that, in a recent demonstration, charged from 10% to 80% in just over four and a half minutes. This is a significant improvement over the roughly 20 minutes required by some current fast chargers like Tesla Superchargers, and it’s approaching the two minutes it takes to fill a gasoline-powered car.
“Our extensive research here in the UK and US has unlocked a novel battery technology that is ready and scalable right now,” said Sai Shivareddy, Nyobolt’s co-founder and CEO, in a statement. “We are enabling the electrification of new products and services currently considered inviable or impossible.”
Nyobolt’s technology stems from a decade of research led by University of Cambridge battery scientist Clare Grey and Shivareddy, a Cambridge graduate. The company says a key factor in the batteries’ ability to charge so quickly without sacrificing longevity is their design, which generates less heat. This also increases safety, as overheating can trigger fires and explosions in lithium-ion batteries. The materials used in the anodes also allow for a more rapid transfer of electrons.
Nyobolt is in discussions with eight electric car manufacturers to sell its batteries. This 35 kWh battery is smaller than the 85 kWh batteries found in many American EVs, but the firm says the technology could be scaled up for larger battery packs in the future.
Long charging times are a key drawback of current EVs, hindering road trips and inconveniencing owners. Nyobolt’s innovation, tested in the firm’s sports car prototype, could be especially beneficial for commercial EV fleets and drivers who depend on electric cars for work, according to Paul Marchment, a consultant at Arval, a vehicle leasing specialist owned by BNP Paribas.
However, another obstacle to the widespread adoption of EVs in the United States and Europe is the lack of accessible public charging infrastructure. Jack Evans, a motoring specialist at Blackball Media, welcomed the news about Nyobolt’s battery, which was tested on a track Thursday using a 350kW DC ultra-rapid charger, which are not yet common on UK roads.
“The units used to charge the Nyobolt battery are few and far between in the UK, so in order for this to really make an impact, there needs to be an increase in the provision of ultra-rapid chargers,” he said.
Shivareddy told CNN that the number of fast chargers is growing in both the US and the European Union and expects them to be “pretty much everywhere” by the end of the decade. In North America, Tesla’s Superchargers make up three out of four fast chargers, and nearly every major US automaker has committed to making EVs compatible with Tesla’s charging technology, known as the North American Charging Standard. Nyobolt’s battery is compatible with a Supercharger.
“We would love to work with Tesla and other leading [manufacturers] to bring our vision to life — with the aim of making recharging times the same as refueling times,” Shivareddy noted. “This would require industry to collaborate for the rollout of a large number of such high-power chargers, along with the grid/off-grid power supply.”
Independent testing of Nyobolt’s batteries by a leading global manufacturer indicates they can handle over 4,000 fast-charge cycles, equivalent to 600,000 miles (965,600 kilometers), while retaining more than 80% of their capacity, according to a Nyobolt Friday statement. “This is many multiples higher than the warranties of much larger EV batteries on the road today,” the company said.
William Kephart, an e-mobility specialist at consultancy P3 Group and a former engineer, stated that EV batteries of this type “theoretically” can be charged as swiftly as Nyobolt promises, but manufacturing such batteries on a large scale is a challenge. A crucial chemical component in Nyobolt’s batteries is niobium. According to Kephart, only an estimated 83,000 tonnes (94,500 tons) of niobium were mined worldwide last year. By comparison, approximately 1.6 million tonnes (1.8 million tons) of graphite, a common anode material in lithium-ion batteries, were produced.
Furthermore, Kephart noted that there are still “a lot of unknowns” associated with niobium battery technology. Regarding the industrial scalability of the technology, he added, “The industry will work it out… (but) it’s not seen by the industry as a scalable technology just yet.”
Besides lengthy charging, consumer adoption of EVs in the US and Europe faces other obstacles, including range anxiety and higher average prices compared to conventional vehicles.
