Series 9 – Episode 8 – Combating range anxiety with fast-charge batteries

Iain’s background is as a technologist, focusing on high-performance power conversion.

Nyobolt, a spinout from Cambridge University, is quite a young company. The technology that’s being developed at the company is about commercialising a new kind of chemistry which allows for a faster charging battery without degrading it. Nyobolt has raised significant investment funds to commercialise that and take it to market.

Mosely discusses the main benefits of using such high-power fast-charging batteries: “The best example in terms of vehicles would be a bus depo type application whereby if you can charge three, four or five times faster than traditional technology, it means that rather than having a vehicle sat there for two or three hours charging, it might charge in five or ten minutes.

“You can imagine the benefits this has for a commercial application as it means you’re back out on the road with that asset being utilised rather than sat in a garage charging.”

High-power fast-charging batteries can also help us to reach net-zero goals. Mosely speaks about the second life of the batteries, and he has worked on some projects in the past where he has looked at using second life vehicle batteries for either home energy support or even small scale grid storage.

Mosely goes on to speak about one of the biggest barriers to the adoption of electric vehicles – ‘range anxiety’ – and what he feels is the solution to this problem. He also looks at where the UK battery industry will be in the next five to 10 years.

To hear more about fast-charge batteries and much more, you can listen to Electronic Specifier’s interview with Iain Mosely on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.