Ford & Purdue University Unveil Cable That Fully Charges EVs In 5 Minutes
Image via Ford
Ford has teamed up with Purdue University to design a cable prototype that could fully charge the battery of an electric vehicle in just five minutes, which could help overcome one of the last hurdles for battery-powered cars to go mainstream.
While the invention could take a while before it’s ready to be mass-produced, this proof of concept could very well be the breakthrough the industry is looking for. Many people are sold on the design and competence of EVs, but hesitate due to the long time they take to charge at a charging station, as compared to how long it takes to fuel up a regular car.
Plus, as Robb Report noted, if you don’t have access to a charging station, juicing up your EV at home could take nearly half a day to complete. For example, the Ford Mustang Mach-E currently takes 11 hours to fully charge even when connected to a Level 2 power setup at home. Undeniably, not many people would want their vehicle idling for such a long period of time.
One of the main causes of slow charging is due to the cables being used, which aren’t able to handle the amount of heat generated should an EV be charged more quickly. At the moment, the industry’s best cables, which are connected to the Tesla Supercharger, can withstand up to 520 amps of current.
In order to allow cables to handle a greater amount of current, Professor Issam Mudawar and his students came up with a new way of cooling the cables while charging. The invention makes use of a liquid coolant, which transforms into vapor upon heating up.
The automaker has yet to give more details of exactly how the cable works, but said it can withstand up to 2,400 amps of current, which would be over four times the amount possible with the Supercharger. This means an EV could easily be charged in under five minutes.
As the company awaits the cable’s pending patent, it will have to work on new chargers and batteries capable to delivering such a high amount of current. Fingers crossed that, in the next few years, we’ll be able to charge EVs in the same amount of time it takes to stop at a gas station.
[via Robb Report, cover image via Ford]
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