ehanes75
Electrical
- Apr 8, 2007
- 11
A company called ZAP! ( located in Santa Rosa, CA claims it is developing a electric SUV that can be recharged "in as little as 10 minutes". Somehow I find this a bit optimistic.
This got me thinking, and I looked at the specs for an existing state-of-the-art Battery system. The Tesla Roadster battery has the following specs:
Capacity: 56 kWh
Voltage: 375 V (nominal)
Peak Power output: 200 kW (268 HP)
Mass: 450 kg
Recharge time: 3.5 hours
Tesla Motors has a white paper on this that can be found here:
To charge the Tesla Battery in 10 minutes would require an power source of about 350 kW. Most folks dont have 3-phase 480 volt service at there house. This is way beyond the capacity available in a typical residence. Though it might be realistic for a corner charging station. I would assume that the ZAP! car would have a even greater power requirement, since its a much larger vehicle (ZAP! doesnt talk about the vehicles mass)
This analysis totally ignores any issues with battery chemistry, themal loading on the battery during charging, etc.
What do you guys think, a 10-minute recharge time for an electric vehicle would be big step towards a practical electric car design.
This got me thinking, and I looked at the specs for an existing state-of-the-art Battery system. The Tesla Roadster battery has the following specs:
Capacity: 56 kWh
Voltage: 375 V (nominal)
Peak Power output: 200 kW (268 HP)
Mass: 450 kg
Recharge time: 3.5 hours
Tesla Motors has a white paper on this that can be found here:
To charge the Tesla Battery in 10 minutes would require an power source of about 350 kW. Most folks dont have 3-phase 480 volt service at there house. This is way beyond the capacity available in a typical residence. Though it might be realistic for a corner charging station. I would assume that the ZAP! car would have a even greater power requirement, since its a much larger vehicle (ZAP! doesnt talk about the vehicles mass)
This analysis totally ignores any issues with battery chemistry, themal loading on the battery during charging, etc.
What do you guys think, a 10-minute recharge time for an electric vehicle would be big step towards a practical electric car design.