Powertrain 2020 - The Future Drives Electric (PDF ... - Roland Berger

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Study
Model 2: "Like gas stations," i.e. superfast charging infrastructure
Model 2 would at first sight appear to be the natural choice from a customer
perspective, as it does not involve any change in mobility behavior. However,
this model has major drawbacks on the vehicle/battery and grid side.
To recharge a battery with a 25 kWh capacity in around six minutes –
roughly the time taken to fill a vehicle up with gasoline – the chargers
would need to provide roughly 250 kW of power. At present this would
require a cable thicker than the hose at a gas station. There are also significant
safety im-plications.
Even if it were possible to design a safe and convenient charging station
with the required level of power, the battery and the vehicle would have to
be able to handle this degree of energy flow in such a short period of time.
Battery manufacturers believe that they could devise a battery that could
cope with superfast charging; indeed, they have already presented prototypes
at the laboratory level. But the key focus of most efforts today, as we
saw in Chapter 2, is getting mass production of batteries up and running,
reducing costs, maintaining high quality, meeting safety requirements
and guaranteeing a lifetime of more than ten years. In other words, there
currently are many higher priorities than introducing batteries with superfast
charging capabilities.
Vehicles would also have to be able to cope with the extreme influx of
heat over a short period of time. The cooling and protection system needed
would represent a large and expensive addition to the already expensive
vehicle. Current estimates are for more than EUR 2,000 in extra costs.