Electric vehicles are on the cusp of rendering their combustion rivals obsolete. The best-selling cars in the world are now electric, and the charging infrastructure is nearing maturity, particularly in places like Europe. But, for EVs to truly dominate the market and decarbonise our roads, they need to become significantly cheaper without sacrificing usability. They also need to convince petrol heads they can offer an exhilarating driving experience, not just fast acceleration. Only then will the mass market and performance buyers switch to EVs. Well, a fully functional concept car by Nyobolt promises to do just this by taking a novel approach to the EV.

The current trend to make EVs more usable is to give them huge, expensive, heavy batteries, extending their range to well over 300 miles while trying to keep fast charge times below 30 minutes. This has been a great tactic over the past few years, allowing companies like Tesla, Polestar and Hyundai to sell EVs in huge numbers. However, the average car journey in the US is only around 12 miles, and most owners only use the full extent of their range every now and then. As such, this approach is incredibly wasteful, as the vast majority of the time, you only use a fraction of the battery pack.

But there is another way to make EVs more usable. Rather than fitting a huge battery, just fit one small one that is good enough for day-to-day driving, say around 150 miles, but give it lightning-quick sub-5-minute charging so longer journeys are viable. This is a way more efficient and intelligent approach as the smaller battery uses far less material, takes way less carbon emission to produce, is significantly cheaper, and dramatically improves the driver characteristics of the car, making it more efficient, faster accelerating, smoother riding, better braking and far better in harsh turns. Not only that, but a smaller battery means the car can be packaged better, meaning the car itself can be smaller for the same interior space, use less material, be cheaper to produce, and even have larger, safer safety features such as crumple zones.

In theory, this is a far better solution. But there are two huge problems. Firstly, as batteries charge slower, the more charged they get; small battery packs charge at a far slower average rate than a large battery pack made of the same cells. So, making a small battery charge at lightning speeds is insanely difficult. Moreover, fast-charging batteries tend to have a short lifespan, bringing me to the second point: charge cycles. A smaller battery might have to charge for 4 times to give the same range as a large one. As battery lifespan is rated in the number of charge cycles, this means that a smaller battery might only last for a quarter of the miles of a large one. As such, these already hard-to-make superfast charging batteries must also last 4 times as long as a typical lithium-ion battery to make this approach feasible. This engineering nightmare has made this approach untenable for many manufacturers.

But not for UK-based battery company Nyobolt. Not only have they created the perfect battery for this, but they have even made and tested a fully functional lotus-inspired lightweight sports car using it to show how brilliant it can be.

This concept car is a proper lightweight, coming in at 1,246 kg (2,746 lbs). That is half a ton lighter than a Model 3 and only 108 kg heavier than a current Lotus Exige Cup 430 (238 lbs). However, while the Lotus "only" has 430 horsepower, the Nyobolt has 470. While there are no official 0–60 mph times for the Nyobolt yet, its gearless powertrain and extra power likely means it's way faster than the Lotus's 3.7 seconds. My guesstimate would be 3.2 seconds.

The Nyobolt only has a 35 kWh battery pack, giving it a range of around 155 miles, but it can charge at a peak of 350 kW and has a massive average rate of 318.5 kW. This means that during a test, the Nyobolt fast charged from 10% to 80%, which added the equivalent of 124 miles of range, took only 4 minutes and 37 seconds.

This means the Nyobolt is reaching the equivalent of 1,611.85 miles of added range per hour charged. For some comparison, the fastest-charging EV currently for sale is the Porsche Taycan Plus, which reaches 810 miles of added range per hour charged, or nearly half that of the Nyobolt!

However, Taycan owners are reporting their batteries only have 90% of their capacity left after driving 155,000 miles, which equates to 442 charge cycles. Meanwhile, Nyobolt put their battery through 4,000 fast-charge cycles, the equivalent of driving their sports car 620,000 miles, and found it still retained over 80% of its capacity. In other words, battery degradation is not a problem for Nyobolt batteries, even if you only fast charge them.

Moreover, the Taycan weighs literally a ton more than the Nyobolt! As such, the Nyobolt will inherently handle corners far better, brake better, and provide a more engaging driving experience.

So, how has Nyobolt done this? Well, their battery uses the best electrolyte, cathode and separator materials on the market, but it also uses its own proprietary high-performance anode materials. This gives the batteries an incredibly low impedance, meaning they can charge faster without heating up too much or damaging themselves. Not only that, but Nyobolt has also developed a highly sophisticated battery management system and coolant system that ensures each battery is charging as fast as it can without overheating.

However, these batteries are just a concept for now. But, manufacturers are now deeply interested, thanks to the concept car demonstrating how brilliant they could be. In fact, 8 manufacturers are in talks with Nyobolt to use their batteries. As such, Nyobolt has said they could start manufacturing the battery later this year. However, production would be small at only 1,000 units. However, Nyobolt's brilliant "flexible" manufacturing model could allow them to scale rapidly to 2 million units per year incredibly quickly.

As such, you might be able to buy a car with these insane batteries in just a few years!

What's more, it might not be a super expensive sports car. I mean, take the Citroën e-C3. It has a 45 kWh battery that takes 32 minutes to charge from 10% to 80% and only gives the car 160 miles of real-world range. But at £21,990, it is one of the cheapest EVs in the UK. The UK is also set to have over 1,000 350 kW chargers installed over the next year or two. So imagine if Citroën offered a nearly identical version with a similar-sized Nyobolt battery for £26,990 (assuming Nyobolt batteries are roughly twice as expensive as current packs). Well, that car could do long-distance journeys quicker than a standard Model 3, as it will spend less time charging whilst costing £13,000 less. Its battery pack will also last longer than the Model 3's.

So, when I say Nyobolt's technology is revolutionary and game-changing, I mean it!

Thanks for reading. Content like this doesn't happen without your support. If you want to support content like this, or read articles early, go and follow me and my project Planet Earth & Beyond.

(Originally published on PlanetEarthAndBeyond.co)

Sources: Top Gear, Autocar, Auto Express, BI, Taycan Forum, Statista, EV Database, Nyobolt, EV Database, EV Database