Upcoming Electric Cars Could Have 500-Mile Range And 1-Minute Charge Time

Electric vehicles are growing in popularity, but due to the range anxiety that consumers have and the long recharge times, adoption has been slow. Now, it seems someone has filed a patent on a solid-state battery that might give future electric cars a range of 500 miles as well as charge time of only one minute.

Most EVs these days still use lithium-ion batteries as fuel, which is composed of liquid chemicals. Solid-state batteries, on the other hand, can be thought of as chunks of electrodes that freely exchange energy. As such, the loss of energy is contained and the storage can be much bigger while keeping the size of the battery itself small. Green Car Congress just reported that the startup Fisker just filed a patent for a solid-state battery that will put current Li-ion batteries to shame.

Apparently, this particular power storage will have 2.5 times more energy density than conventional Li-ion batteries. Fisker is also claiming that this is enough to push the range of an EV to 500 miles, which is nearly twice what most electric cars can achieve.

“This breakthrough marks the beginning of a new era in solid-state materials and manufacturing technologies. We are addressing all of the hurdles that solid-state batteries have encountered on the path to commercialization, such as performance in cold temperatures; the use of low cost and scalable manufacturing methods; and the ability to form bulk solid-state electrodes with significant thickness and high active material loadings. We are excited to build on this foundation and move the needle in energy storage,” a statement from the company reads.

Another advantage to solid-state batteries is how much safer it is compared to Li-ion options, which are prone to exploding, Futurism reports. Unfortunately, this also makes them more expensive. If Fisker really wants high adoption rates of its battery, it will need to become cheaper.