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If true, the rest of the EV scene looks obsolete already. Will other countries find themselves rolling out the red carpet for Chinese cars as their own motor industries struggle to survive? – – – China has developed a revolutionary car battery that can charge in just 10 minutes and power a car for hundreds […]
China develops revolutionary electric car battery that can charge in 10 minutes
Jun 02, 2024 @ 21:21:14
The recharge time for a battery is a very good test to see whether people understand physics. How big a cable and how to get rid of heat are fundamental problems.
To illustrate this, assume the battery is 50kWh and 600V. To charge in 10 minutes assuming 90% efficiency means 330kW has to flow through the cables. As DC, it means over 500A has to flow. As the cable has to be braided copper to give it flexibility, that is something about 500mm squared size so about 30mm diameter. It also needs serious insulation against that voltage so that will take it up to 40mm diameter. And there are two of them, positive and negative. Got a forklift to move the cables, because all bar muscle men won’t be able to lift them? And that level of current at that DC voltage needs serious electrical protection. A lot harder than an AC circuitbreaker.
And then there is the cooling. The losses are about 30kW. That is a lot of heat to get rid of. It will be in the cables as well as the battery. To reduce losses in the cabling – needs to be bigger so heavier and less flexible. But how do you get rid of heat in battery? The last thing you want is a thermal runaway. It is a stationary car. For existing cars at a lot lower charge rate, you need a refrigeration system. That amount of heat is a massive AC plant, which will need even more power to run.
Of course, to do this size charging, you will need a transformer bigger than a street one for every charging point. Have a half dozen chargers at a single point and they need a 33kV feed. That is serious distribution infrastructure. Need to rewire the whole town.
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