Californian battery technology company Desten Inc. has heralded a new ultra-fast lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cell which it says is capable of charging in six minutes. And firm promises its innovation “is poised to change the face of electrified mobility and energy storage.”
“The latest pouch form-factor cell from Desten is capable of charging from 20pc to 80pc state of charge (SOC) in six minutes. Owing to its LFP based chemistry, this cell features an impressive chemical and temperature stability profile, making for the safest battery technology available to date, alongside market leading cost efficiency,” it says.
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“LFP is becoming a leading chemistry for mass market applications,” says Desten chief innovation officer Thomas Damitz, but expertise in the technology is largely located in China. Desten’s ultra-fast battery follows the likes of Chinese market leader Catl’s ultra-fast charging Shenxing LFP battery.
“Our latest technological breakthrough has the potential to revolutionise transportation and energy storage applications,” says Desten CEO Bader Al-Rezaihan. “By making ultra-fast charging cost competitive via iron-phosphate material formats, Desten will resolve key adoption barriers for EV drivers and provide grids the power capacity they need to replace fast ramping fossil fuel generation sources with confidence.”
Route to market
Desten says that samples of the cell are “now making their way to leading OEMs for testing” before it goes to market. But Alasdair Pocock, head of business development at Desten, cautions EV inFocus that “testing can take several months for the OEM to validate the cycle of life of the technology under fast charging rates”.
And because of this timeline, there are other platforms outside of BEVs to which Desten is working to apply its new battery.
“We are presently engaged with a number of applications for this battery. Of course mass-market BEV is a key application we are focusing on given the scale of the market.
“However, we are also working on other platforms like two-, three- and four-wheelers in the last mile delivery segment and battery energy storage utilising the 22Ah 6C LFP technology,” Pocock says.
“We expect that the development cycle of prototype two-wheelers and energy storage systems will be much quicker than a fully-fledged BEV platform developed with one of the larger OEMs. We anticipate that we will have prototype two-wheelers on the road for testing by Q2-Q3 of 2024 for this reason,” he continues.
Ciaran has written about finance, politics and culture. He is passionate about e-mobility and what it means for our way of life.
Ciaran has a Masters in Ancient Philosophy from Oxford University.
