Australian-made ‘Fast Charger’ Slashes EV Charging Time

May 8th, 2013 by Guest Contributor

This story first appeared on Renew Economy
by Sophie Vorrath

Australian-designed EV-charging technology has slashed the time it takes to recharge an electric vehicle, achieving as much as 80 per cent battery capacity in under 30 minutes.

Queensland-based EV systems manufacturer Tritium, which evolved from an interest in providing solar racing powertrain solutions, launched its Veefil charging system in Brisbane on Wednesday – a technology it has realised with the help of a $1.15 million Early Stage Commercialisation grant through Commercialisation Australia.

On a website dedicated to the technology, the company says its Veefil fast charger can charge an electric vehicle 20 times faster than plugging it into the wall at home, and that just 10 minutes of charging will give EV drivers 50km of range.

“Reducing the charge time of an electric vehicle from eight hours to less than an hour is a game changer and will be a major boost for the electric car industry,” said parliamentary secretary for Climate Change, Industry and Innovation, Yvette D’Ath, speaking at the launch.

Tritium says the Veefil could be rolled out to hotels, carparks, airports and shopping centres, where easy and fast turnaround times on charging would be at a premium.

Designed for indoor and outdoor use – and compact enough to fit in most locations without too much hassle – it is also suitable to be installed in private household garages. It supports both major DC fast charging standards used by EV manufacturers.

“With all indications that demand for electric cars will grow significantly over the next decade, this places Tritium – a Brisbane-based manufacturer – in a prime position to capitalise on that growth,” said D’Ath.

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Tags: Australia, Australian, Australian-designed, Brisbane, queensland, recharge, Tritium, Yvette D’Ath

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Pieter Siegers

It is well known that the quicker you charge a battery, the more heat and gas is produced inside the battery because of the losses while restoring the chemicals and plates to the originally state – that is, fully ‘charged’. This together with discharging and overcharging shortens battery life considerably.

Besides, as is already mentioned, the power that is needed to drive this thing is immense, very few residential electrical installations would be able to provide it.

We have to be very careful about this type of quick charging because it damages the battery and is therefore potentially dangerous.
- arne-nl
  
  This is cheap FUD.
  
  You probably are confused with lead-acid batteries (talking about ‘plates’ and ‘gas’). Lithium Ion batteries can be fast charged without any of the dangers that you predict. People that regularly fast charge their LEAF report no issues with increased degradation. Electric cars have a BMS that will protect the battery, limiting charge rates when SoC is either low or high.
  - Bob_Wallace
    
    I’m going to suggest that the truth is probably somewhere between Pieter’s and Ann’s posts. Fast charging of lithium batteries does seem to shorten their life somewhat.
    
    Nissan has had some problems when their LEAF batteries have been rapidly charged when the outside air was already quite hot. There have been some battery problems in Arizona that seem to be linked to rapid charging and, well, Arizona can be an oven.
    
    Also, Nissan says that LEAF owners should not use rapid charging too often. Apparently an average of once a day is OK, which means that rapid charging is fine for almost all. Most people would only use a rapid charger on a longer than normal trip.
arne-nl

This is simply a CHAdeMO charger, what’s the fuss about? It is touted as some kind of breakthrough here, but I do not see it.

Btw, it is only usable if you have a grid connection that can handle the >50 kW power draw. That is something like 200 amps @240V single phase (US) or 65 amps @230V three phase (Europe).