Revolutionizing EV Batteries: A Deep Dive into Liquid Cooling
Imagine an electric vehicle battery that stays just cool, even under extreme stress, and can be charged in a flash. That's exactly what Taiwanese company Xing Mobility seems to have done! They've created a novel liquid cooling system that British manufacturer Caterham is looking to integrate into their upcoming Project V electric vehicle.
How Does This Cool System Work?
Here's where it gets cool. Xing Mobility, founded by former Tesla and Panasonic personnel, has created a system where the actual battery cells are completely submerged in a proprietary liquid. Not just any liquid, of course – a dielectric fluid. What does that do for heat? Well, evidently, full immersion enables significantly more efficient heat exchange – up to 30% more efficiency than the cooling systems commonly utilized in electric vehicles.
Keeping Things Cool, Even When Driven Hard
Why is it so important to have the battery temperature just right? Especially for high-performance electric sports cars like the Project V that put extreme demands on their systems. The liquid immersion setup is designed to maintain the battery within its ideal temperature range in a sweet spot, between 0 to 40 degrees Celsius (32 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit), even when the vehicle is being heavily driven to the limits.
Faster Charging, But At What Cost?
One of the most promising potential benefits is charging speed. Xing Mobility's technology has the potential to reduce the charging time from 10% to 80% to a mere 13 minutes! That's very fast, considering that many conventional systems take 40 minutes or more for the same degree of charge.
That being said, as with all bleeding-edge tech, there are trade-offs. This system does increase the weight of the battery pack, and it does cost more to produce currently. The Caterham Project V will be using Panasonic cells with this cooling, but for your non-exotic, mass-market electric cars, the technology is still quite expensive to implement on a broad level.
Project V and The Road Ahead for Xing Mobility
Caterham is targeting a price of around $106,000 for the Project V. Xing Mobility, however, is not looking to stop there. They will be starting mass production of their cooling systems starting from 2025. They are already working on lowering the cost, which is crucial for mass adoption. It seems some Japanese automakers have already looked at similar immersion cooling but retreated because of the expense. Getting the cost right will be key to this cool tech making its way into more EVs in the future.
