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Ford Has Created A New EV Charging Cable That Is Nearly 5 Times Faster Than Tesla’s Superchargers

January 20, 2019 - Altamonte Springs, Florida, United States - A Tesla electric car is seen parked at a charging station in Altamonte Springs, Florida on January 20, 2019. Tesla has raised prices at its Supercharger stations, and will now set prices according to local demand and power rates. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

It was revealed in a study in the journal Nature Energy that charging stations were creating problems for people and that is why they were leaving the use of electric vehicles in California at a rate of 20 percent.

Ford and Purdue University have made a new charging cable that is 4.6 times faster than Tesla’s Supercharger. It takes about 20 minutes to entirely charge a battery using Tesla’s newest Superchargers, and these new cables could reduce the time to as little as 5 minutes.

The time it takes for the electrical vehicles to get charged is a lot and the vehicle heats up while charging as well. This creates a combined issue that worsens the other. Reducing the charging time is not possible without eliminating the heat produced.

The researchers at Purdue University have designed a patent-pending cable that addresses this issue. The team that brought this innovation usually brings “solutions for situations where the amounts of heat that are produced are way beyond the capabilities of today’s technologies to remove” according to the university’s press release.

Rapid DC chargers provide power at 67 hp (50 kW), which is the quickest way for most vehicles to charge fully after about an hour. If a vehicle is compatible with ultra-rapid DC chargers, it usually takes 20 to 40 minutes, even for the larger ones. However, Tesla Supercharger uses rapid DC charging for 20 minutes.

However, a solution for long charging hours is to leave the vehicle on charge overnight. The new cable is not capable to charge vehicles that have old batteries. There are vehicles designed for specific chargers, so this is a very important point. Otherwise, it is no use to buy the cable if your vehicle is not compatible with it.  

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