An electric car that can recharge in as little time as a gas-guzzling vehicle has long been a dream of current and future electric car drivers. But what if it could recharge even faster? According to the American Petroleum Institute, the average refueling time for a car is now two minutes. And Swiss tech startup Morand is developing a new electrical energy storage technology that could provide slightly more than two minutes of charging time for electric cars.
A cross between a conventional battery and a supercapacitor, the company’s eTechnology device offers potentially game-changing charging speeds, along with the potential to outlast lithium-ion batteries by a significant margin.
Morand is the name of former F1 driver and team manager Benoît Morand, who was an integral force in the development of the Hope Racing Oreco 01 Hybrid, the first prototype hybrid car launched at the 24 Hours of Le Mans more than a decade ago. Along with a small team of other former F1 engineers and managers, Morand has set out to apply hybrid and electric technologies derived from motorsports to more practical, everyday solutions.
Morand has been working to develop what it calls eTechnology, describing it as an energy storage solution that combines the properties of supercapacitors and chemical batteries. In its test and evaluation program, the company says a 7.2 kWh prototype of eTechnology is capable of charging to 80 percent in 72 seconds, 98 percent in 120 seconds and 100 percent in 2.5 minutes at up to 900A/360 kW. The independent tests were conducted by Geo Technology.
Of course, 7.2 kWh is a far cry from the 100 kWh+ battery packs used in some of the longest range electric vehicles on the market. focusing on smaller capacity applications such as drones and electric bikes, Morand explained that eTechnology is best suited for applications that require quick, slightly more frequent recharges of five minutes or less, examples of which are cars like the Citroen Ami a small city car like the Citroen Ami and its 5.5 kWh battery pack.
In the case of e-bikes, Morand estimates that a bike with a 6-amp-hour battery can be fully charged in 6 minutes at a lower rate of 3.2 kW. This would profoundly change the usage of electric bicycles, which typically take several hours to recharge. With a six-minute charge time, riders could plug in and recover all or most of the bike’s mileage in a short break, without the need to buy and carry a spare battery. This could make electric bikes a more viable alternative to cars for long daily commutes.
Morand cites other advantages of the eTechnology, including efficient operation in extreme temperatures and the potential for more charge/discharge cycles. It claims that it has safely tested more than 50,000 charge/discharge cycles, dozens of times more than conventional battery packs.
Morand said it is working with a manufacturing partner on small production runs and plans to increase production volumes to make eTechnology cost-competitive with lithium-ion batteries. It is also looking for investors to provide it with the capital to scale up production.
