and it just got the green light for mass production
The British VarEVolt battery has been granted the certification needed so it can be manufactured on a large scale, meaning more EV makers can use them in their cars.
A British firm has received approval to mass-produce an ultra-high-power-density electric vehicle (EV) battery that can be fully recharged in just 18 seconds.
The RML Group was granted Conformity of Production certification for its VarEVolt battery on June 2. This government approval signifies that the firm can mass-produce the powerful batteries for EV manufacturers.
The certification “underlines our readiness to move from prototyping and niche volumes to supporting larger production contracts,” James Arkell, the head of powertrain at RML Group, said in a statement.
RML’s battery can deliver lots of power in a short span. The VarEVolt battery can supply 6 kilowatts per kilogram, and it’s capable of “dumping all its power really, really quickly,” RML board member Michael Mallock told Autocar. The battery has a C rating of 200, meaning it’s capable of fully charging or discharging in about 18 seconds.
In comparison, the fully electric Porsche Taycan’s battery has a C rating of around 4 to 5, so it takes 12 to 15 minutes to charge or discharge.
The VarEVolt’s modular design lets manufacturers tune it for different applications. “We can focus on range, we can focus on power, or we can balance the two,” depending on the type of vehicle it will be deployed in, RML Group CEO Paul Dickinson told Autocar.
Superfast charging for superfast EVs
Some small-scale manufacturers are already using the VarEVolt battery; it helps power the futuristic Czinger 21C hybrid hypercar, which relies on a combination of an electric motor that uses energy stored in the battery and an internal combustion engine that burns gasoline.
Right now, the RML group is producing just a few of the VarEVolt batteries at a time, but future large-scale output wouldn’t necessarily be confined to exclusive products like the 21C. (Czinger produced just 80 of the luxury sports cars in the first run.)
The firm is developing a kit to convert the battery packs in older hypercars, such as the LaFerrari or the McLaren P1, to updated versions, according to Mallock.
“For those types of cars, we can do a replacement pack that will significantly increase the range, and if the rest of the hardware within the car would allow it, you could have a version that was eight times the power output,” Mallock told Autocar.
About Author
Skyler Ware is a freelance science journalist covering chemistry, biology, paleontology and Earth science. She was a 2023 AAAS Mass Media Science and Engineering Fellow at Science News. Her work has also appeared in Science News Explores, ZME Science and Chembites, among others. Skyler has a Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech.
