The automotive market we live in right now uses lithium-ion battery packs for the electric charge needed to drive where you need to go.
While these batteries are somewhat affordable to produce and so far have been useful, they do offer a huge downside. These batteries take a long time to recharge in order to offer us the driving range we want from our EV models. Those of us who have made the change and drive an EV has had to learn how to deal with staying closer to home or understanding the amount of time that will be spent at the refueling center.
No Challenge for a Gasoline Stop
The fact that you have to stop for an hour or more just to receive another ninety miles of driving range in an EV makes it difficult to take a road trip where you travel from one side of the country to another, makes gasoline continue to be the fuel of choice. Right now, you can stop at a gas station and spend less than fifteen minutes waiting to pull away while the vehicle refuels. Even though some automotive brands are able to offer a range for EV models that can rival some electric models, none of the electric models offered are able to charge in as little time as a gasoline stop.
New Developments in Battery Technology
Currently, a team at the University of Glasgow in Scotland is developing a liquid-based battery that could recharge in seconds rather than taking even as long as a gasoline stop does. This new battery uses a type of metal oxide that interacts with the liquid to produce a charge. The battery could be instantly recharged with the use of a nozzle that could draw out the spent liquid out of the battery and then replace it.
Not the First Flow Battery
Even though the use of the type of batteries being developed in Scotland would be a first for an automobile, flow batteries have been used in stationary power grid storage applications due to their size and weight. This means the battery would have to be scaled down in order to fit into a vehicle and be light enough to be used, but a flow battery could be useful and charge up quickly for the continued drive. If this does come to fruition, it would be a serious game-changer for the entire industry.
Working Alongside Gasoline
A flow battery program could use similar pumps as gasoline and would be able to be quickly installed alongside gasoline pumps in the near future to give you a real choice between the two. While we don’t know for sure if flow batteries or solid-state batteries will be the future of the automotive world, it seems the solution to range anxiety and charging time are being figured out. It might be a while until we see one of these batteries in a vehicle, but at least we know there are teams working on solving these problems.
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