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Electric car batteries with five-minute charging times produced

Author: Damian Carrington

Carrington, Damian. “Electric Car Batteries with Five-Minute Charging Times Produced.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 Jan. 2021, www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/19/electric-car-batteries-race-ahead-with-five-minute-charging-times?utm_source=Solutions%2BStory%2BTracker.


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Electric car batteries with five-minute charging times produced

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By Damian Carrington|Jan. 18th, 2021

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Batteries capable of fully charging in five minutes have been produced in a factory for the first time, marking a significant step towards electric cars becoming as fast to charge as filling up petrol or diesel vehicles.

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Electric vehicles are a vital part of action to tackle the climate crisis but running out of charge during a journey is a worry for drivers. The new lithium-ion batteries were developed by the Israeli company StoreDot and manufactured by Eve Energy in China on standard production lines.

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Feb 2
Thomas Chadwick Thomas Chadwick (Feb 02 2021 11:55AM) : Introduces Problem more

Author introduces two problems after he states his solution in the first paragraph: vital part of action to tackle the climate crisis; running out of charge during a journey.

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Feb 2
Thomas Chadwick Thomas Chadwick (Feb 02 2021 12:10PM) : Decribes Origin of Solution more

States the developers and maufacturers of the new Li-ion batteries.

StoreDot has already demonstrated its “extreme fast-charging” battery in phones, drones and scooters and the 1,000 batteries it has now produced are to showcase its technology to carmakers and other companies. Daimler, BP, Samsung and TDK have all invested in StoreDot, which has raised $130m to date and was named a Bloomberg New Energy Finance Pioneer in 2020.

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Feb 2
Thomas Chadwick Thomas Chadwick (Feb 02 2021 12:13PM) : Credibility of Company more

States some of StoreDots other achievements in the battery technology industry to show off the company’s knowledge and credibility in this field.

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The batteries can be fully charged in five minutes but this would require much higher-powered chargers than used today. Using available charging infrastructure, StoreDot is aiming to deliver 100 miles of charge to a car battery in five minutes in 2025.

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Feb 5
Yara Ahmed Yara Ahmed (Feb 05 2021 2:56PM) : Would this not still produce some sort of pollutant?
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Feb 2
Thomas Chadwick Thomas Chadwick (Feb 02 2021 12:11PM) : Solution Goal more

StoreDot gives a goal for the battery, aiming to deliver 100 miles of charge to a car battery in 5 minutes by 2025.

“The number one barrier to the adoption of electric vehicles is no longer cost, it is range anxiety,” said Doron Myersdorf, CEO of StoreDot. “You’re either afraid that you’re going to get stuck on the highway or you’re going to need to sit in a charging station for two hours. But if the experience of the driver is exactly like fuelling [a petrol car], this whole anxiety goes away.”

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Feb 2
Thomas Chadwick Thomas Chadwick (Feb 02 2021 11:57AM) : States problem again more

The author cites this problem from the creator of the improved car battery to confirm the problem that the battery fixes.

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“A five-minute charging lithium-ion battery was considered to be impossible,” he said. “But we are not releasing a lab prototype, we are releasing engineering samples from a mass production line. This demonstrates it is feasible and it’s commercially ready.”

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Existing Li-ion batteries use graphite as one electrode, into which the lithium ions are pushed to store charge. But when these are rapidly charged, the ions get congested and can turn into metal and short circuit the battery.

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The StoreDot battery replaces graphite with semiconductor nanoparticles into which ions can pass more quickly and easily. These nanoparticles are currently based on germanium, which is water soluble and easier to handle in manufacturing. But StoreDot’s plan is to use silicon, which is much cheaper, and it expects these prototypes later this year. Myersdorf said the cost would be the same as existing Li-ion batteries.

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Thomas Chadwick Thomas Chadwick (Feb 02 2021 12:03PM) : Anticipates Scientific Questioning more

This paragraph explains the science behind the battery and what StoreDot did to change the efficiency of the battery.

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Feb 2
Thomas Chadwick Thomas Chadwick (Feb 02 2021 12:01PM) : Same Priced Solution more

The CEO of the battery company says that the cost of the improved solution batteries would be the same as the existing Li-ion batteries due using silicon instead of germanium.

“The bottleneck to extra-fast charging is no longer the battery,” he said. Now the charging stations and grids that supply them need to be upgraded, he said, which is why they are working with BP. “BP has 18,200 forecourts and they understand that, 10 years from now, all these stations will be obsolete, if they don’t repurpose them for charging – batteries are the new oil.”

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Feb 8
Janet Ilko Janet Ilko (Feb 08 2021 7:47AM) : I have been wondering about this, our neighbors have a charging station in their home for their electric cars, but the batteries eventually will wear out and what will that do to the environment?

Dozens of companies around the world are developing fast-charging batteries, with Tesla, Enevate and Sila Nanotechnologies all working on silicon electrodes. Others are looking at different compounds, such as Echion which uses niobium oxide nanoparticles.

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Tesla boss Elon Musk tweeted on Monday: “Battery cell production is the fundamental rate-limiter slowing down a sustainable energy future. Very important problem.”

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Thomas Chadwick Thomas Chadwick (Feb 02 2021 11:59AM) : Another Statement of a Problem more

Author quotes one of Elon Musk’s tweets to explain another issue that this problem causes (slowing down a sustainable energy future).

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Dylin (Ori) Reyes Dylin (Ori) Reyes (Feb 05 2021 12:01PM) : This is a good and forgotten point that needs to be brought up again.
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“I think such fast-charging batteries will be available to the mass market in three years,” said Prof Chao-Yang Wang, at the Battery and Energy Storage Technology Center at Pennsylvania State University in the US. “They will not be more expensive; in fact, they allow automakers to downsize the onboard battery while still eliminating range anxiety, thereby dramatically cutting down the vehicle battery cost.”

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Feb 2
Thomas Chadwick Thomas Chadwick (Feb 02 2021 12:15PM) : Cutting Down Costs and Size more

Another statement declaring that the new batteries will be the same price or even cheaper, than the old car batteries. It also reduces the size of the battery.

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Yara Ahmed Yara Ahmed (Feb 05 2021 11:58AM) : If this becomes a feasible solution it could very easily assist in the fight against climate change

Research by Wang’s group is being developed by the company EC Power, which he founded. It carefully increases the temperature of the battery to 60C, which enables the lithium ions to move faster, but avoids the damage to the battery usually caused by heat. He said this allowed a full charge in 10 minutes.

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Thomas Chadwick Thomas Chadwick (Feb 02 2021 12:18PM) : Credibility Through Research more

Establishing credibility through research by a scientific group. Also answers more questions about the science behind the battery.

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Wang said new research published in Nature Energy on Monday showed this battery could be both affordable and eliminate range anxiety. “Finally we are achieving parity with gasoline vehicles in both cost and convenience. We have the technology for $25,000 electric cars that race like luxury sport cars, have 10-minute rechargeability and are safer than any currently on the market.”

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Wang noted that fast charging must also be repeatable at least 500 times without degrading the battery to give it a reasonable life and that the EC power battery can do so 2,500 times. Myersdorf said the StoreDot battery could be recharged 1,000 cycles while retaining 80% of original capacity.

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Feb 2
Thomas Chadwick Thomas Chadwick (Feb 02 2021 12:19PM) : Statistics for Skeptics more

Some statistics that skeptics might have been wondering about. Declares that the battery would lose 20% of its capacity after 1000 cycles.

Anna Tomaszewska, at Imperial College London, UK, who reviewed the fast-charging batteries in 2019, was more cautious about the speed of their rollout. “I think technologies [like StoreDot’s] could start entering the market in the next five years or so. However, since they will be more difficult and expensive to manufacture, we’re likely to initially only see them in niche markets that are highly performance-driven and not as price-sensitive as electric vehicles,” she said.

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DMU Timestamp: November 12, 2020 20:50

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