This is still very good news for users. This means that an everyday car will soon be able to be recharged in less than five minutes, thus removing the main obstacles to purchasing.
Published on 04/17/2024 1:49 p.m.
Reading time: 2 min
In the coming weeks, the dream of all electric car drivers will come true: recharging your battery in less than 30 seconds. Formula E, electric Formula 1, must introduce a new ultra-fast charging system at 600 kW. This is almost twice as much as the most powerful current fast chargers. And this is what will allow electric Formula 1 cars to refuel while wasting as little time as possible in the pits.
Formula E was designed, above all, as an open-air laboratory for production cars. This is why most car manufacturers are participating: DS, Renault-Nissan, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche and many others… The technology will therefore also be applied to everyday electric cars. They will be almost the same chargers and the same battery technologies.
Jaguar, for example, adapted its battery optimization software to its road sedan, which gave it 10% more autonomy. Nissan even managed to triple the capacity of its batteries thanks to its Formula E. For the record, when the competition began in 2014, the drivers were forced to change cars mid-race, and take another. with a full tank, because they did not have enough autonomy. Today, the same car lasts the entire race and it is four times more powerful.
The possibility of charging in less than five minutes will be available when the reliability of the chargers has been tested in competition, which is not a given. The system has already been delayed several times for development issues. But once it has demonstrated its effectiveness, its adaptation to road cars should be very rapid, six months, a year at most. Again, these are the same chargers with the same battery technologies.
