These are the car technologies that I've referred to previously, the aim being ultra quick charges rather than very high energy density. From the electric bike users point of view, it's not the best news, for that's the opposite of what we need, which is energy density for range. The motor industry knows there's no chance of enough energy density for 300 mile ranges, so all the effort is to get charge times possible during frequent stops at around 80 to 100 mile intervals for one or two minutes or so each time.
Toshiba have done most of the early work in this direction and have twice announced availability in the following year, and they should be here with us now. They're not of course, and that's the trouble with these future promises, they never quite seem to make it in the manner described in the laboratory.
There will be advances of course, but I'm prepared to bet they'll be something like those to date, a very gradual improvement, which for us has meant a doubling of range over the last ten years The labs keep quiet about the disadvantages of their developments, since it's continuing funding they need, so spin pays. So here's some examples:
The claims of huge numbers of charges and very long life for lithium batteries of various kinds all depend on minimal discharge depth. In other words, if a lithium rechargeable battery is designed for discharge of only a seventh of it's capacity each time, with immediate recharge, it can last for very many years. Only the words in bold are announced. This kind of use is in satellites today. That would mean us only doing about 3 or 4 miles at most before recharging
The claims of very high performance, in a sports car for example, are met by using vast numbers of tiny near AA size cells. I won't go into why that is, as the explanation is very long, but it's sufficient for you to know that the charger that has to be used for this setup is as big as a large room. Again, you only hear the words in bold.
Yes, I'm a cynic, but that cynicism is born of very long professional experience in many branches of technology, and I know the politics of development.
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