Usually, the fastest-charging electric cars could, when plugged into a compatible charger, top up the battery from 10% to 80% in a smidge over 15 or so minutes. But, what if I told you that there’s a car on the road today (well, it’s a prototype, but it’s driveable!) that will manage the same charge rate in under 5 minutes? Based in Cambridge, the Nyobolt EV prototype is, at the moment, undergoing real-world testing to demonstrate its ultra-fast charging tech to other OEMs, with the hope of advancing electric mobility. This means that the Nyobolt EV, when it’s plugged into a 350kW DC charger, charges at more than double the speed of production EVs.
Yet, it manages this ultra-fast charging without causing lithium-ion battery degradation, since independent tests show that Nyobolt’s batteries could handle more than 4,000 of these super-fast charge cycles, retaining over 80% battery capacity after 600,000 miles. If you’re interested in all the nerdy tech, Nyobolt’s batteries specifically utilise next-gen (and patented) carbon and metal oxide anode materials, as well as their innovative low-impedance cell designs, and their integrated power electronics. I don’t really know what any of that means, but hey, it certainly works! It’s only a rolling prototype for now, but with time, it might make it into more EVs.
The Best Electrified Propulsion And Battery Tech
When initial testing was completed with the Nyobolt EV’s 800V architecture, and using 350kW DC fast chargers, the diminutive 35kWh (50Ah) battery pack would charge from 10% to 80% in a record 4 minutes and 37 seconds. If you do the maths, this should yield the Nyobolt EV more than 155 miles of range (WLTP) thanks to this ultra-fast charging, and more than 120 of those miles of range were gained in the first four minutes of charging, at 500A current. Typically, it’s normal to expect at least some battery degradation, but that’s not going to happen here, with their 24.5Ah battery cells lasting over 4,000 full Depth of Discharge (DoD) fast charge cycles.
For Nyobolt, their revolutionary battery design isn’t just about super-fast charging and longer lifespans with slower degradation, but it’s also about how much range you could get out of it. The Nyobolt EV is a small, sharp, lightweight MX-5 Miata-esque sports car, so the creation of smaller, energy-dense batteries could help to reinvigorate the idea of lighter, better-handling sports cars. The Nyobolt EV, for instance, has a tiny, fast-charging 35kWh battery, and it tips the scale at just over 1,250kg. It showcases that you could engineer energy-efficient vehicles that are fun to drive, and affordable, yet use very few precious resources (mainly the battery).
Could This Be The Future Of EV Batteries?
Right now, the Nyobolt EV remains just a prototype vehicle, but there’s potential for this to be a low-volume production example. As such, it’s more than just a rolling showcase for the super-fast charging technology and battery pack design. For the time being, Nyobolt is aiming to produce their battery packs in low numbers, before ramping it up to around 1,000 packs by 2025. In due course, Nyobolt technically has the manufacturing capacity to build upward of 2 million battery packs each year. Best of all, since Nyobolt plans on offering their battery tech to other carmakers as an OEM, their EV architecture easily retrofits into existing electric cars.
For most existing EV platforms, it’ll be mere plug and play, offering you an instant upgrade to yield you (way) faster charge times and longer battery life cycles. It should also be compatible with most other performance EVs, just like Nyobolt’s own prototype sports car, given that the battery modules are cooled using a common water/glycol mix. Plus, Nyobolt also includes an AC compressor and a battery chiller, which some other carmakers use to cool their batteries. The scalability of this proudly made-in-the-UK battery design, on the back of over a decade’s worth of R&D, might also find their way into heavy-duty electric vehicles and even robotics!
