This New Electric Car Battery with 200 Miles of Range Can Be Charged in Only 6 Minutes

Toshiba has just unveiled their next-generation SCiB rechargeable batteries for electric cars. What’s unique about these particular batteries according to the Japanese tech company is that they charge fully in just six minutes and have a range of 200 miles. Meanwhile, gas-powered vehicles have a median range of around 663 kilometers (412 miles).

It’s well known that EV’s are saturating the car market lately, but with a focus on electric power comes the need for better power sources. Therefore, a primary area of concern for many manufacturers is the development of fast charging batteries. At the moment lithium-ion batteries are the primary option for EVs, despite their charging capacity not being the best.

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In response to this, Toshiba developed SCiB rechargeable battery cells in 2008 which use “lithium titanium oxide in its anode to achieve excellent characteristics, including safety, long life, low-temperature performance, rapid charging, high input/output power and large effective capacity,” reads the description on the website.

Since its inception, the battery has been used in a range of vehicle, industrial and infrastructure applications.

Now, their latest development can give electric vehicles a faster 320 km (200 miles) range in minutes.

“Rather than an incremental improvement, this is a game-changing advance that will make a significant difference to the range and performance of EV. We will continue to improve the battery’s performance and aim to put the next-generation SCiBTM into practical application in the fiscal year 2019,” said Dr. Osamu Hori, Director of Corporate Research & Development Center at Toshiba Corporation, in a press release.

Unlike their previous incarnation, these batteries have anodes made from titanium niobium oxide, something Toshiba claims maintains 90 percent of the battery’s capacity even after 5,000 charging cycles. Also, ultra-rapid recharging can be done in cold conditions, with temperatures as low as minus 10°C, in only ten minutes. Though Toshiba has yet to specify the charger that would pair with the battery.

This isn’t the first time a battery has blown minds; Tesla Superchargers can produce as much as 135kW of power. The Model S also has an 85 kWh battery with a 426-kilometer (265-mile) range.

Airbus for batteries

Meanwhile, the European Union recognizes that it is falling behind significantly in the EV battery race. Such awareness prompted a recent announcement by Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission vice-president in charge of energy.

He stated that he would host a summit on October 11th for executives from car manufacturers to discuss Airbus-like cooperation between the different sectors. The EU could support the efforts with up to 2.2 billion Euros (£1.95bn) worth of funding 

“What we need is an Airbus for batteries. In the 1960s, we had a lot of smaller companies with cutting edge but what they missed was the scale. We needed the Germans, the French and other Europeans to get together and to develop what today is a marvelous plane,” he told the Financial Times.