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EV Charging Solution: a Bunch of Smart Battery Eggs

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One of the biggest problems with electric vehicles is the relative inconvenience of charging a battery while on the go. Really, beyond the availability of charging stations, there is one fundamental problem: it takes quite a while to charge electric car batteries. Even connected to a fast-charging station, it can take a half hour to “fill up,” something that isn’t remotely close to the convenience of a five-minute gas station stop (and that includes going inside for a soda).

One tech company called TankTwo thinks it has the solution: rather than one huge battery, one tank full of randomly-dropped-in battery eggs.


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Before we talk about it, here is how TankTwo explains it:

So, basically, when charging from home, having these “string batteries” wouldn’t be any different than the batteries we have now. However, if you are on the go, then the power eggs can be hoovered out and replaced with fresh ones in about 3 minutes, since they don’t actually need to be connected to each other—just touching.

If this catches on, there are a ton of possibilities for new business models. Bert Hotappels, TankTwo’s CEO, described one to The Observer, writing, “A car manufacturer can build a battery pack that can hold enough energy to drive, say, 400 miles, but it can sell the car with, for example, 100 miles capacity installed. When you want to do a road trip, you just get some extra cells, for which you pay a modest fee for the period you use them.” In addition, it seems possible that TankTwo would be able to sell sets of these string cells and the device for changing them out to drivers to install in their homes, allowing people to quick-change and charge their batteries from home, should they need to.

Of course, there are some pretty glaring “ifs” in this proposition. The biggest is “if carmakers install these in their cars,” which is built on “if a carmaker is willing to invest in the infrastructure.” Sadly, with the current infrastructure gaining traction, it is entirely possible that these batteries could simply fall by the wayside. Maybe if they make it so the string cells can be charged by conventional EV charging stations?


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News Source: The Observer