Some Googling will turn up lots of academic studies of pulsed charging, but GBatteries’ secret is in the adaptive nature of the pulsing frequency, which constantly pulses parameters like amplitude, width, and periodicity, interspersing discharge cycles as necessary. Artificial intelligence programmed into the controller monitors the battery’s dynamic impedance, or resistance to current flow, tailoring the pulse rate to minimize impedance, reducing battery temperature and preventing those irreversible battery-life-killing “ion wrecks.”
In lab tests, fast-charging batteries from 25 to 95 percent charge using both methods, GBatteries found that after 17 recharges the useful capacity of the CCCV-charged batteries dropped to about 83 percent of original, while the pulsed batteries retained more than 85 percent of their capacity after 110 cycles.
View 19 Photos
A few caveats. Those tests were on smaller batteries, and so far the aforementioned impressive Bolt EV charging stats come from computer modeling. A prototype EV charger should be running later this year. Note also that physics demands that hitting 50 percent in 5 minutes requires a charging rate in kW that’s five times the battery’s capacity in kW-hr (300-kW charging of a 60-kW-hr battery).
The minimal hardware (a power filter to create the wave form) and extensive software that enables GBatteries’ pulsed charging could be integrated into the vehicle (and the company is talking to multiple OEMs). But the quicker path to market will be integrating it onto the DC fast chargers and getting OEMs to push software updates that enable their vehicles to accept the new charging protocol. It’s expected to work with all currently available EV battery chemistries.
Imagine charging stations transitioning away from parking-place devices used by a handful of vehicles per day to yet another choice on the filling-station island, frequented by hundreds of vehicles a day. These vastly more profitable chargers will proliferate naturally, allowing EV batteries to shrink without causing range anxiety, because drivers can conveniently “gas up” like they do today when taking longer trips.
I feel an “inflection point” in EV sales coming if this works out. And it’s sure to kill all demand for hydrogen fuel cells—that infrastructure just doesn’t seem to be happening.
Read more by Frank Markus here:
Photo Gallery
19 Photos in this Gallery