Phoenix Electric Car: capable of 10 minute recharge?

Question

Is this true?
http://www.autoneato.com/phoenix-electric-car-the-electric-truck-with-muscle/

Answer 1

As the article points out, the ZAP-X Crossover has also claimed that it will be able to recharge in 10 minutes:

http://zapworld.com/ZAPWorld.aspx?id=4560

They do it with nanotech batteries, which you can read a little bit about here:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070802/clth056.html?.v=99

From the Phoenix car website:

Off board charger: 10 minutes to recharge to 95% capacity
On board charger: 6 hours to recharge from 220V plug-in

So basically in order to get the power necessary to recharge such a large battery in 10 minutes, you would need to have a special recharge station built. Otherwise you can just plug into a 220V outlet and recharge in 6 hours. If we can get some of these rapid recharge stations built to make the Phoenix and ZAP-X recharge times just 10 minutes, electric cars would soar in popularity very fast. This is a huge technological breakthrough.

Answer 2

I think a more sensible method, once an infrastructure was set-up for electric cars of course, would be to have replacable battery packs at gas stations. Instead of pumping gas, just replace a battery pack and go...Instead of sitting there paying extra for a 10 minute quick recharge. May need to redesign the vehicle to suit that set-up. I think we can add solar to wind/nuclear powered electric generating plants.

Answer 3

Yes, it is possible to obtain a full charge in 10 minutes. The note on the site that the 10 minute charge is from an Off-board charging unit. This unit would no doubt cost extra and be similar to a fueling station. There have been significant improvements in battery technology especially with Lithium-ion batteries. Toshiba had batteries that obtained an 80% charge in less than a minute in 2006.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Toshiba-announces-a-new-rechargeable-battery-926.shtml

The cars look like they come with the standard overnight charger on-board so you wouldn't need to purchase the 10 minute fueling station which would likely require you to do some rewiring from your main power source.

Answer 4

you can recharge anything if you put enough juice into it....

but as Gaby says, where does the electricity come from? If you are recharging a car with electricity that is coming from a coal or oil fired plant, there is no gain, indeed a loss in terms of climate change, oil saved etc........now if power stations were wind/nuclear, that's another kettle of fish.......

Answer 5

I think Electric cars are great for reducing pollution in the city, but do little or nothing for global warming. The output from electric power plants just increases and pollution is moved to that location.

I'm not saying they aren't a good thing, I just don't want one because I don't live in the city. I drive long distances a lot, and I really don't like the idea of increasing pollution outside the cities.