NAWA aims for 5-minute EV charge

A new nano-based carbon electrode is key to reducing electric-vehicle charging time.

A French nanomaterials company has developed a technology that it claims can significantly increase the storage efficiency of electric vehicle batteries. NAWA Technologies' Ultra-Fast Carbon Electrode (UFCE) is a key to bringing EV battery-charging time into parity with gasoline-refueling time, while improving battery life-cycle performance by a factor of up to five, according to company founder and CTO, Pascal Boulanger.

In an interview with SAE's Automotive Engineering, Pascal Boulanger said the UFCE technology can help deliver 1,000-km (620-mi) operating range for mass-market EVs, with a time of five minutes for an 80% charge. “The uniqueness of the technology is its 3D structure and use of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes [VACNT],” he noted. Each nanotube is formed from a graphene sheet that is rolled in a cylindrical shape. The tubes have “the same aspect ratio [between diameter and length] as a kilometer-long piece of spaghetti, with the electrode being made of a hundred trillion of these tubes!” The UFCE technology is compatible with any advanced battery-cell chemistry, he said.