Charging an electric car in just five minutes and even less is something owners of those vehicles can only dream of for now. But according to NASA, it could be possible very soon. Purdue University, with funding from NASA, has developed experimental technology for future space missions that could significantly reduce load times.
The technology is meant to cool equipment in space and could also be used to cool cables while charging electric vehicle (EV) batteries, according to NASA. The charging time would then be just five minutes and even less, while today it takes hours at home to fully charge such an EV battery. You can continue on the road after twenty minutes of loading time.
But the refrigeration technology, developed by scientists at Purdue University with funding from NASA, could increase the amount of electric current from electric car chargers to around 1,400 amps, a goal the industry is aiming for. Today, up to 520 amps can be pumped into an EV battery. The well-known Tesla Supercharger reaches a maximum current of 180 amps, while standard chargers usually can’t handle even 150 amps. Purdue’s charging cable was even able to deliver 2,400 amps during the experiments, far more than the 1,400 amps needed to reduce the charging time to five minutes.
Scientists have managed to deliver 4.6 times more power to an electric vehicle’s battery than today’s fastest cable, thanks to new cooling technology that can remove up to 24.22 kilowatts of heat, according to NASA. The technology uses a super-cooled liquid, which can draw more heat from the charging cables so as to avoid overheating.
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