This Mumbai Duo Has Developed A Battery For Electric Vehicles That Charges In Only 15 Minutes

While most of the auto industry is in pursuit of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) that run longer and charge faster, a Mumbai-based startup that goes by the name of Gegadyne Energy, claims to have come up with a battery that can charge within 15 minutes. With this, the novel battery also aims to make the EVs more affordable for the users.

The technology is currently awaiting its patent approval and according to Jubin Varghese, co-founder and CEO of the company, is more efficient as well as scalable than the prevalent lithium-ion batteries.

Jubin Varghese(R) and Ameya Gadiwan (L), Co-Founders - Gegadyne Energy (YourStory)

So how is it different?

Now in case you are wondering what is so special about this battery technology that makes it more efficient than the Li-ion ones, it is the way in which energy is stored within the battery. While Li-ion batteries store energy in an electrochemical manner, the new batteries by Gegadyne Energy do the same in a ¡°combination of the electrostatic and electrochemical process¡±. This results in around 50 times longer battery cycle as well as faster charging time in comparison.

For all of this, the battery uses supercapacitors which boasts of a quick charging capability in combination with the high energy density of conventional batteries. Varghese further explains that the concepts of electrostatic charge storage & Faraday reaction are used in this.

How does it help?

Lithium-ion batteries are the most preferred ones for electric vehicles as of now. But the problem with the rise of EVs is that fact that the consumption of Lithium and the associated elements, Cobalt for one, has been ever increasing, so much so that sheer number of EVs demand around 50 percent of the Li-ion batteries in the world.

That also means that going forward, there will be an increasing pressure on the limited availability of the elements. This, and the fact that the Li-ion batteries take a lot of time to charge on a normal charger, auto makers have increasingly been focusing upon alternatives for the same.

Gegadyne Energy

At a time like this, such battery technology by Gegadyne Energy can really catch up with the automotive world and might as well act as the catalyst to achieve the ideal scenario with the electric vehicles, where the range of the EVs is higher than the present and the charging times lower.

This is not the only battery tech boasting of such results though. Many firms have actively been involved in looking at solid-state batteries as a viable alternative to Li-ion ones. Another potential alternative are the metal-air batteries, which are also being worked upon by another Indian startup named Log9. The company has come up with a Graphene-based battery that refuels with water and required a simple change of an Aluminium sheet to rework. The optimisation of the battery is currently underway.

Recently, BMW also unveiled its latest research project that involved a super fast charger that could recharge a Li-ion battery within 3 minutes flat. Its effect on battery though, with such high speeds of charging, is yet to be figured for the commonly used Li-ion batteries in EVs.

The costs

A big plus of the battery by Gegadyne Energy is the fact that it is at par in cost as the Li-ion ones and as it scales, the team expects it to be much more feasible. This can potentially lead to a considerable price slash in the production of EVs, considering that Li-ion batteries account for up to 40 percent of a vehicle¡¯s production cost.

Varghese says, ¡°A large chunk of the purchase price of an EV today is the battery. Therefore, India can potentially rise to the top in the battery manufacturing industry. Not only is this economically feasible, but also sustainable."

Reuters

The company plans to make the batteries commercially available by 2020, as by then, Varghese expects more players and more technology around EVs to come into the picture. Working prototypes and battery packs, verified by a third-party are already in place and the team expects to enter the pilot production of the battery cell in India within next 12 months.

(With inputs from PTI)