Coming: Electric Cars Chargeable in 10 Minutes

In 10 years, your electric car could be recharged in just 10 minutes

By Mike Wehner, Tecca, October 11, 2011

Ask any prospective electric vehicle owner to name the biggest hurdle to going green, and odds are they'll say the same thing: staying charged up. Until getting some juice becomes easier for full, non-hybrid electric vehicles, green drivers worry about getting left in the lurch when between charges. While a number of initiatives — like the Green Highway and expanded charging networks -- are working to expand charging networks across the nation, Nissan is at work on the chargers themselves.

If it comes to fruition, Nissan's research (in partnership with Japan's Kansai University) would allow electric vehicles like the Leaf to juice up fully in a mere 10 minutes — hardly a pit stop at all. The technology works by adjusting a charger's capacitor, swapping in a combination of tungsten oxide and vanadium oxide for the charger's traditional carbon electrode.

Unfortunately, while the prospect of such a massive leap forward makes the future look brighter (and greener) than ever, the technology probably won't be fully cooked for commercial use for another 10 years yet. Considering it takes more than an hour to juice up our considerably smaller plug-ins, that's not too surprising — but we're still in for a bit of a wait.

]This article originally appeared on Tecca

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