Magnis Energy Technologies has taken the next step towards commercialising an electric vehicle battery it says can recharge a vehicle in six minutes.
As reported by The Driven in July, the ASX-listed company revealed it had an electric vehicle battery in development that could charge to 85% in six minutes, using an unoptimised 25kWh battery.
Now, it is taking the next step towards commercialising the battery, announcing its partner Charge CCCV will begin testing optimised cells.
“Cycling results from an unoptimised commercial size cell to date, using CCV technology, has produced exciting results, with the cycling life retention over 1000 cycles, with a 6 minute charge and 1 hour discharge,” said the company in a statement.
“The unoptimised cell is within 99% energy density of a regular energy cell, which means minimal energy density loss for a super fast charge cell. Following the exciting results, a decision has been made to commence testing of EFC (extra-fast-charging) on optimised composition of commercial cells.”
If successful, Magnis Energy Technologies plans to make the batteries at a planned “gigafactory” near Townsville, Queensland, as well as at a factory in New York, US.
Magnis recently gained approval from the Queensland government for a feasability study on the planned Townsville battery factory, and has since raised $7.65 million to accelerate plans for the factory, which is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs for the region.
A recent study commissioned by the New York State Energy Development and Research Authority (NYSERDA) found that the first generation of 1 Charge CCCV lithium-ion batteries are some of the most environmentally sustainable around.
NYSERDA will now also fund a 12-month demonstration of the extra-fast charging batteries in electric buses in collaboration with New York energy utility Consolidated Edison and defence technology firm BAE Systems.
Magnis chair Frank Poullas said of the new development that interest in the new CCCV batteries is growing.
“The response from our fast charging announcement has been amazing with a number of major OEM’s contacting Magnis with discussions having kicked off,” he said in a statement.
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.