EV Charging in 5 Minutes

[Marina Schwarz + 1,576]

BP's splashing $20 million on a battery-making startup that promises to make a car battery that can charge in just five minutes (without blowing up immediately afterwards). Just when people are getting worried about the combustibility of li-ion batteries. I'm thinking the supercharging phase of the EV (r)evolution will take longer than the range phase.

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

That amount of juice in such a short time would put one heckuva strain on electrical grids, if lots of cars charge at once.

So the car battery might not explode, but city's electrical transformer stations might trip or explode if 1 million people in an urban area decide to quick charge their EV car battery just before morning rush hour.

[Alvin Lee + 5]

fast charging is fine. how long can such Lithium ion battery last if they do this fast charging all the time? my understanding is that it will shorten the lifespan of such Li+ battery. 

If the electricity still comes from mostly natural gas powerplant, we are still using fossil fuel.