Charging speed is no longer an obstacle for electric cars

There’s a lot to learn about and ponder in this thread by Bloomberg Senior Reporter Tom Randall. He talks about how fast upcoming chargers will top up a battery, how larger capacity means quicker initial charges, extended ranges and more. (I only include a few tweets here, check out the whole thread.)

Imagine a world where 350 kW charging is the norm—200+ miles in 10 minutes. Would you feel grossly inconvenienced to stop for 10 minutes after every 3 hours of highway driving? There’s more 4/ pic.twitter.com/wYKWNskgtW

— Tom Randall (@tsrandall) April 30, 2018

Along with faster chargers, battery capacities are also rising. A lot of people don’t understand how that affects charging. Batteries charge fastest when they’re closer to empty and slower when they’re near full. So bigger batteries mean faster charging. Also 5/

— Tom Randall (@tsrandall) April 30, 2018

Sure, the Roadster is a $200k car, but it’s also Tesla’s goal post for where the market is headed. The original 2008 Roadster had a range of 244 miles. At the time that was bonkers—now the long-range Model 3 blows it away at half the price 9/ pic.twitter.com/SRuNw1rS52

— Tom Randall (@tsrandall) April 30, 2018

Obviously, electric cars aren’t perfect, you have to consider where the electricity is coming from, the production of batteries is polluting itself, and we should prioritize public transport and walkable / bikeable cities. Still, the speed at which renewables are being installed and the evolution of electric cars are a fascinating to watch.

• cars