Company Builds Fast Charging Station For Electric Cars

thecarchik writes "Japanese based JFE Engineering has released its ultra-fast charge station. Designed to comply with the CHAdeMo standard developed by Tokyo Electric Power Company, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru and Toyota, the system is capable of charging a 2011 Mitsubishi i-Miev from empty to 50% full in just three minutes. Even just three minutes plugged into the fast-charge station was enough to enable a standard 2011 Mitsubishi i-Miev to travel a further 50 miles before further charging was required."

Comments

Some quick math says...

[JesseL]

This thing is putting nearly a quarter megawatt (240kw) drain on the power grid during use.

I wonder if it has some sort of means of load smoothing and a limited duty cycle, or if it's going to need its own substation.

Re:Some quick math says...

[captainpanic]

I would be inclined to stand back before switching the power on. And I don't think I would leave the kids in the car during the charging operation.

But you're happy to have your kids in a car while you fill it up with 50 liters of some toxic and highly flammable liquid or even gas.

Re:Some quick math says...

[v1]

You don't have to heat the fuel tank to do that.

True. But instead, you're venting HIGHLY flammable AND explosive gasses out of the tank and back down the hose into the station's tank. Most people don't know about that. (liquid gas by itself is NOT explosive, it's merely flammable - gas vapor OTOH is highly explosive, which is why we use it for fuel) When you're pushing 15 gallons into the tank, there's a reason there's not a whoosh of gas vapor out around the nozzle from the displacement occurring.

They do that of course (1) as a safety measure and (2) to save a buck or two in the long run, as that vapor goes back to the storage tank (instead of sucking in air to replace the lost gas) and some of that will condense back into gas for them to sell.

Know what happens when there's a problem with the vapor backflow? Nothing. Well, maybe a kaBOOM but what I mean is there's no safety on it. Know what happens when the temps get too high or current inrush spikes? The fast charge system halts the fill. So you see, it's actually safer than a gas quick fill. There's a computer carefully watching many aspects of the charge all the time.

The gas station really is already giving you a quick-fill, by bending the safety of the system a bit. Don't you hate it when you happen to use a pump somewhere on a road trip that's really SLOW? I remember having to wait 10 minutes for a fill once, in the dead of winter on a road trip. I waited inside, and when I got outside it had JUST finished... AND had just started gushing fuel all over the ground because the full-shutoff failed. (probably the pump and the shutoff were both having issues with the cold, it was well below zero, and it was diesel fuel)

Also after watching the video you will notice he waited for a FULL charge. They slow down the rate when it gets closer to full. The article states 50% charge in 3 minutes, and yet it took him over 10 to get 100% charge, so the remaining 50% requires 7 more minutes. Probably a higher ratio than that even, as he said he didn't get it fully discharged. Looks like they're probably taking the conservative side of safe on this still.

Re:Cold fusion

[iamhassi]

"Electric engines are roughly 3-4 times as efficient as gasoline ones. So you get 3-4 times the effective energy density out of batteries."

Sure, but who wants to buy a car that only gets 100 miles, then needs to be recharged every 50 miles? This might be a good second or third car, but it's not that practical as your main vehicle, and the fact that an electric vehicle must be charged nightly limits it to only being useful to homes with garages.

This is why SUVs have been so popular in the US despite their poor gas mileage. You can fit 5 to 7 adults comfortably and still have room for luggage.

Electric cars will fail, and series hybrids like the Chevy Volt will succeed. When the batteries run low a gas generator keeps the batteries charged enough to power the vehicle. This is brilliant: I get my electric car for my short daily commutes, but I still have gas for those rare times when I need to drive hundreds of miles in a day. I have the best of both worlds with no sacrifices.

Also series hybrids means we can finally use turbines: gas turbines are the most efficient engine. While a gasoline engine is only 20-30% efficient, a gas turbine is over 80% efficient. In 1999 GM made a EV1 Series hybrid using a turbine generator. The vehicle achieved up to 100mpg while charging the battery using 90s technology and a 220 lbs turbine (modern turbines are much smaller)

In ten years when series hybrids become the norm we'll look at vehicles like the Prius the same way Prius owners look at SUV owners today.