Ford partnered with Purdue University to build a prototype of an EV charging cable that could fully charge an EV’s battery in 5 minutes, according to Purdue University (h/t CleanTechnica). It’s still a work in progress, but once it’s working, the cable could allay some of those EV woes that worry the skeptics who think EV batteries take too long to charge. EV ranges are reaching good levels these days, but that “slow” charging times on road trips are still said to be a bit of a worry for drivers who aren’t quite ready to make the switch to electric.
Ford and Purdue want to come up with a better way to cool down charging cables to cut superfast charging times. “Purdue University engineers have invented a new, patent-pending charging station cable that would fully recharge certain electric vehicles in under five minutes — about the same amount of time it takes to fill up a gas tank,” the university states.
Professor Issam Mudawar of Purdue University and his students are behind the engineering. It uses a liquid coolant that changes to vapor as it heats up. Although Ford didn’t go into details about exactly how the process works, the new cable could handle up to 2,400 amps of current. This would result in charging an EV even faster than at Tesla’s Superchargers — cutting the times to as low as 5 minutes.
This sounds really innovative, but for now, the new chargers and batteries that are capable of safely receiving that much current still need to be developed.
“My lab specializes in coming up with solutions for situations where the amounts of heat that are produced are way beyond the capabilities of today’s technologies to remove,” said Issam Mudawar, Purdue’s Betty Ruth and Milton B. Hollander Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering.
“Ford is committed to making the transition to electrification easy,” said Matt Stover, director of charging, energy services and business development at Ford. “We are glad to support Purdue’s research, which has the potential to make electric vehicle and commercial fleet ownership more appealing and accessible.”
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