Harvard-backed company makes an EV battery that fully charges in three minutes

• Researchers at Harvard have created a battery for EVs that can charge 0-100 in just 3 minutes.
• The company has now been granted a technology license to scale lithium-metal battery technology for commercial deployment.
• Currently, replacing EV batteries costs up to ₹5.50 lakh to ₹6.20 lakh.

Massachusetts-based and Harvard-backed start-up Adden Energy has developed a battery for EV cars capable of fully charging in three minutes and has a lifespan of about 20 years which is more than twice that of current EV batteries.

The technology used in EV batteries has received an exclusive license from Harvard’s office of technology development. Also, the startup has received $5.15 million in funding from Primavera Capital Group along with Rhapsody Venture Partners and MassVentures.

The new battery is made of lithium metal, rather than lithium-ion found in EV cars. According to researchers, the battery has an intricate design inspired by a BLT sandwich, which tends to prevent the growth of dendrites that grow in lithium-metal batteries and reduce their lifespan. This BLT design prevents the penetration of lithium dendrites by containing and controlling them.

The battery is also self-healing which means its design and chemistry allow it to backfill holes created by dendrites.

Now, Adden Energy will advance the technology as they have achieved 5,000 to 10,000 charge cycles in a battery’s lifetime compared to 2.000 to 3,000 charging cycles of traditional EV batteries.

Lithium-ion vs lithium metal batteries

Currently, EV cars with lithium-ion batteries degrade over time and last up to 7 to 8 years, similar to smartphone batteries. Lithium-ion batteries can be replaced, but the cost is higher (₹5.50 Lakh to ₹6.20 Lakh in India).

The new EV battery from Adden Energy is a lithium-metal battery with a lifespan of up to 20 years. During the research, the battery prototype achieved charge rates as fast as three minutes with over 10,000 cycles in a lifetime.

This new technology has been developed by Xin Li and colleagues at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Adden Energy was co-founded in 2021 by William Fitzhugh and Xin Li, both of them contributed to the development of the technology as graduate students at Harvard lab.

The benefits of lithium-metal batteries hold substantially more energy in the same volume and charge. Also, they are not prone to forming tiny dendrites or rigid tree-like structures contributing to battery failure. The new EV battery has a high energy density and a level of material stability that overcomes the safety challenges some other lithium batteries face.

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