Long charging periods are one of the most frustrating aspects of owning an electric vehicle (EV), ranging from 10 hours with a home charger to around 30 minutes with a high-powered public charger.
However, a recent paper from the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) claims that future EV drivers may be able to charge their vehicles in as little as three minutes thanks to quantum technology.
That would place it at nearly the same rate as filling up a car with gas – a remarkable leap toward broad adoption and away from range anxiety.
According to the paper, quantum batteries might be built to “store and release energy in a quick and efficient manner” by utilizing quantum phenomena such as entanglement. To attain charging speeds equal to filling up a car, an EV battery must be able to charge all of its cells at the same time, a process known as “global charging protocol.”
Current batteries aren’t capable of collectively charging their cells, but experts believe quantum charging might allow batteries to take advantage of the phenomena.
A typical electric vehicle (EV) has a battery of 200 cells. Quantum charging would result in a “200-fold speedup over conventional batteries,” reducing charging time from hours to minutes. This technology would not only have tremendous influence on EVs, but it may also be applied in other consumer devices and future fusion power plants.
Reference- Journal Physical Review Letters, SciTech Daily, Futurism