Tuesday, May 20, 2014: Electric cars today have two problems, one the cost and two, the time they take to charge their batteries. This may soon be history, as a Japanese company Power Japan Plus, which works with battery technology has developed a new kind of battery that charges faster and is cheaper. According to reports, the new battery, known as Ryden, has a carbon anode and cathode (which is why it is also known as Dual Carbon battery).
The company says that the batteries do not experience any thermal change, while discharging, which would cancel the need for a battery cooling system in electric cars. The cooling system is used in order to prevent thermal overrun. Further, the new batteries can reportedly be charged at 20 times the rate of current Lithium-ion batteries.
Moreover, the cost of lithium-ion batteries that are used currently comes from the use of nickel, cobalt and manganese, which are used for the cathode. With the use of carbon for both anode and cathode, this cost factor is also reduced. The company has reportedly developed a Carbon Complex, which is an organic version of carbon that is derived from cotton.
The new Ryden batteries will be offering the same energy density that lithium-ion batteries provide right now. This means that the vehicle range will not be increased because of the use of these batteries. Time taken for charging though will be much shorter, with Ryden reducing the charging time by about 12 minutes.
Lastly, the new battery can also discharge completely without any damage to itself, which is another new feature. Current batteries can neither be charged completely nor can they be discharged fully.
