For Formula E electric car racing, they created ultra-fast charging – 10% in 34 seconds

Dependency on the charging infrastructure is a problem not only for road electric vehicles, but also for racing ones that participate in Formula E competitions. Initially, each driver was supposed to be provided with two cars for the duration of the race, which he changed as the battery depleted, but now the organizers are ready to introduce 34 -second charge, which will increase the battery charge by 10%.

Image source: Unsplash, Rico Reynaldi

The power of such a charging station, as Electrek explains, will reach 600 kW, which is also impressive given the general state of the charging infrastructure on the planet. In principle, only the Chinese are currently approaching such power on public roads, but corresponding developments from the world of high speeds may ultimately be useful for “civilian” infrastructure.

According to Formula E regulations, during the race the driver can use a 34-second stop once to recharge the traction battery. During this time, a 600 kW charging station will transmit about 4 kWh of electricity, which is equivalent to approximately 10% of its capacity. Compared to production electric vehicles, this is not the largest capacity, but racing cars save weight, and the batteries remain very heavy.

In principle, a serial Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric car, when connected to a charging station compatible with this mode, is capable of restoring the charge of the traction battery from 10 to 80% in 18 minutes. Of course, the charge is replenished nonlinearly, but even if we simplify the calculations, it will increase by 10% in about two and a half minutes. This is almost five times slower than a Formula E car, although such a comparison cannot be called fair, because the battery capacity of the Ioniq 5 varies from 63 to 84 kWh. Even if we assume that a Formula E car has half the battery capacity, the Ioniq 5 still takes significantly longer to restore the proportional 5% charge. Thus, such technologies have the right to life in everyday use scenarios. Formula E organizers are going to test this innovation in mid-February at the race stage in Saudi Arabia.