Toshiba Creates New Car Battery With 200-Mile Range And 6-Minute Full Recharge

As an industry leader in creating cutting-edge technology, Toshiba has long been considered one of the most innovative tech firms in the world. Now the Japanese company is claiming that it has developed a new car battery with a range of 200 miles that can be recharged in just six minutes. This could put electric cars much closer to traditional vehicles in terms of mass market appeal.

The battery in questions belongs to Toshiba’s SCiB’s lineup, which the company introduced back in 2008, Futurism reports. It can be fully charged in six minutes or less thanks to the company’s ultra-fast charging technology. The secret to the battery’s rapid recharging capability apparently stems from the material that the company used to create its anodes, which is the part of the battery that electrons pass through.

In its press release, Toshiba elaborated on its new anode technology, which explains not only the new battery’s ultra-fast charging but also its increased lifespan. The company’s researchers apparently found a new way to both synthesize and rearrange materials within these batteries.

“The energy density by volume of battery is twice that of the current SCiB. The next-generation SCiB maintains over 90% of its initial capacity after being put through 5,000 charge/discharge cycles, and ultra-rapid recharging can be done in cold conditions, with temperatures as low as minus 10°C, in only ten minutes,” the press release reads.

As Electrek notes, covering new claims of better, faster, more efficient batteries can be tricky since it’s hard to say if the promises will ever come to fruition. Toshiba says that production of its new battery will start in 2019, which is still a long way off and enough time for the whole thing to fizzle out. On the other hand, the company has earned a reputation for reliability, so it’s worth giving Toshiba the benefit of the doubt.