One of the hurdles in the way of the widespread adoption of electric vehicles is the ability to pull into a fuel station for a quick fill-up. A "multi-million" dollar injection from Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital could very well give Dutch company Epyon just what it needs to leap over that obstacle. The company claims their technology can charge lithium ion batteries in as little as five to fifteen minutes instead of the hours it typically takes now. How do they do it? By using "state-of-the-art power conversion techniques and intelligent control systems" combined with high-power lithium ion and supercapacitor storage. The needs of each cell within the battery are evaluated and met through communication between the charger and battery management system (BMS). Also, by incorporating an energy reservoir into its system, Epyon avoids the predicament of overloading the grid with extreme demand spikes.

You won't see an Epyon station on the side of the road tomorrow though. The first thing they need to do is build some installation demonstration units and partner up with an appropriate battery company. The company, a spin-off of the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, plans on concentrating their initial installations in large commercial facilities such as airports or other industrial environments. Let's just hope the technology doesn't take too long to trickle down to personal vehicles since this is the kind of energy-charging solution that American electric vehicle manufacturers would seem to prefer.

[Source: Clean Break / Earth2Tech]

The biggest name in shopping malls in Japan is set to install electric vehicle charging spots in its parking lots after entering negotiations with car-makers Mitsubishi and Fuji Heavy Industries, builders of the iMiEV and R1e, respectively. Starting with the Lakeland mall currently under construction in Koshigaya, Saitama Prefecture, Aeon will add to its list of environmental programs by giving EV drivers the opportunity to juice up while they are doing their shopping. According to reports, the charging equipment to be used will have the ability to fill batteries much quicker than the plug at Japanese homes, taking only an hour to do the job rather than the more typical 7-14 hours.This equipment sounds to us like something Nissan might be interested in looking into as it explores EV charging infrastructure in Japan.

[Source: Green Car Congress]

We regularly get questions from readers asking for more detail or clarifications on the topics we write about. This morning Andrea wrote in with this question:

I was wondering if you could help me out. I was reading about this new car, the Lighting, that uses NanoSafe batteries you talked about in one of your posts. They say that in order to charge it's nanosafe batteries you only need 10 minutes. Is it only 10 minutes of normal electricity (the one we have at home)? Are they saying that you plug your batteries into a normal home outlet for 10 minutes and you are done or there's something I am missing?

The answer to this question is an unequivocal NO! You can plug in the Altairnano (or A123) batteries into a 110V outlet to charge but that takes 6-8 hours for a full charge. The fast charging capability requires a special charging station that no one is likely to have at home any time in the foreseeable future.

When ABG interviewed Altairnano CEO Dr. Alan Gotcher earlier this year he explained what was needed. The fast charging requires 480V and somewhere between 500-1000 amps. They foresee gas stations and the like installing charge stations that would store electricity locally in something like a huge capacitor and then pump it into the car on demand. This kind of station won't be cheap, requires a huge cable to charge the battery at that rate and poses potential safety risks. When I spoke to Ric Fulop of A123 last week, he explained that their batteries are capable of such fast charging as well, but they aren't advertising it or focusing on it because of the infrastructure that would be needed to support it. So even though Phoenix, Zap, Lightning and Altairnano are talking up that capability, don't expect anyone, except perhaps some fleet operators, to be able to do this.