SBIC Battery Technology

Has this technology progressed to the point that is a viable option for hybrid/all electric cars?

A little.

Conventional wisdom indicates a "90% charge in 5 minutes" will require substantial infrastructure to accommodate...ie 480V source.

Conventional wisdom still holds.

I suspect that the reason there have been few posts here is the title. In the US, SBIC usually means Small Business Investment Company. SCiB, on the other hand, is Toshiba's lithium-ion battery technology. I don't think they will be producing the SCiB for automotive use until 2010 but I think it shows some promise. Apparently, the energy density is low, at about 65-70 Wh/kg (about half as dense as lithium polymer). The Altair Nano battery is similar in this respect (and in its fast-charge capability).

For automotive use, a 480 V source would be required, and even then, the amperage would still need to be high: If you wanted to recharge a Tesla battery (56kWh) to 90% (50.4 kWh) in ten minutes, you'd need 480V 600A service. Although providing this service would be straightforward in many commercial areas, the rectifying and charge control equipment would be in the car, presumably, adding weight to the car. For PHEV's though, the amperage requirement would be lower (1/4 or less), so you could stop in for a couple minutes for a recharge at a Starbucks, if you didn't want your engine to kick in when you went beyond the battery range.

Thank you Ken for the updated information. I am trying to understand early on which technology may be the method of choice for electric vehicles.

It would seem that if a specific technology had the ability to recharge very quickly as described, there would be the possibility of recharging the battery at some rate by solar means.

In theory, if a trip to work was 20 miles one way, the hope would be that the battery would be fully recharged by the time you made the trip home. This would accommodate a slower recharge rate and maintain the batteries range.

Hi Hammerman,

Actually, virtually all batteries can be charged by solar stations. (Solar panels are generally a slow charge rather than fast charge proposition.) A car the size of a Prius uses about 250 Wh per mile, so would use about 5kWh in 20 miles. A 1000 watt solar panel installation could charge such a car in 5 hours, under perfect conditions, with a 2000 watt installation being more realistic.

I just realized that you might be thinking that the ability to charge quickly means that less total charge is required. The amount of energy used to recharge any battery (to replace the charge depleted by usage) is independent of how quickly the battery can be recharged. (In most modern chemistries, the energy that you get out of a battery is almost equal to the energy you put in. For lead-acid batteries this is not strictly true -- if you use energy at a high rate, you get less useful output from the battery.) Except for subtle differences, any of the battery technologies act about the same when being charged over the course of a few hours by a solar station (or from a 120 vac outlet.)

The fast-charge technologies have the potential to enable cars to be recharged at "electric stations" in about the same time as spent at a gas station. No home outlet can supply the voltage and current required to accomplish this, but these fast charge batteries can be recharged slowly at home. Any battery is happy being charged slowly, whereas only a few are happy being recharged at very high rates. (The Tesla batteries, if adequately cooled, could be charged in one hour. But, at home, the standard 120 VAC outlet is 15 amp, or 1800 watts. Thus, a full recharge of a fully depleted Tesla battery would take 56,000/1800 hours = 31 hours. Wiring up a dedicated 240 VAC 30 A outlet would cut that time to 7.8 hours. Obviously, Tesla drivers will rarely fully deplete their batteries, so most charges would be manageable.

So right now, we do not have the infrastructure to support fast charging, but installing fast charging batteries in upcoming electric vehicles would make sense so that they can be fast-charged when we have that infrastructure... at least if all else were equal. However, all else is not equal, and the current fast-charge batteries are about twice as heavy as slower-charging batteries (which can still be charged in less than an hour if there is an adequate charging station).

For my own vehicle, (www.gaiatransport.com) which I will using to compete for the Progressive Automotive X Prize, weight is more important that charging speed, so I will use batteries with better energy density than the Toshibas. If a vehicle is small and efficient (mine will use about 40% as much energy as a plug-in version of a Prius) then the battery can be smaller, which means that it can be more quickly charged from ordinary outlets. The fact that it is a plug-in hybrid means that there is no panic to be certain the battery is fully topped-up at work, because if you are a kilowatt hour short, the engine starts to make sure you get home. The Chevy Volt, if it ends up reasonably-priced and reliable, will be very successful for this reason: you have the advantages of an electric car without the worries about dead batteries. It is expected to use lithium polymer batteries (which are light) rather than SCiB (which are fast charging but too heavy).

I think the idea of all-electric cars with super-fast charge capability (i.e., replacing gas stations with electric stations) is appealing. However, plug-in hybrids will make the charge speed issue a moot point for most people: sure, charge for an hour or two at work, or plug in for 20 minutes at a Starbucks, if you want to make sure the engine rarely or never runs -- but routine charging will be done at home. Then, there is no market for charge stations (or alternatively, for battery-swapping stations -- a concept which seems too full of logistic hurdles to fly in a place like the US). It's the classic chicken and egg problem: without charging stations, fast charging capability is not useful enough to counter the weight of fast charge batteries, but who will build these stations if there are no cars to use them.

If there is going to be a reasonably-priced mass-market full-electric car, it is likely to come from China, in the form of a BYD in 2010. These might be sold in enough volume to support a fast charging infrastructure (and the BYD batteries could have perhaps 30 miles charge added in 10 minutes, I'd guess) but I doubt that there will be enough volume to get such stations installed.

If I were going to guess, I'd say that lightness (and PHEV's) will win out over fast charge (and EV's). Of course is someone comes up with a battery that is light, fast- charge ( 5- 10 minute) capable, and reasonable in price, then that technology will win, no doubt.