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MIT students build EV that recharges in 10 minutes

A group of students from the United States' Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have converted a 2010 Mercury Milan hybrid to fully recharge in just 10 minutes!


The car has also proved capable of travelling up to 322km on a single charge and can do the 0-100 km/h run in under 9.0 seconds.


By adding 7905 lithium iron-phosphate batteries the group created a process they call "recharge rapid" - something major manufacturers have yet to achieve.

The electrochemistry of these batteries is also less volatile than that of other types of lithium-ion cells, which makes these batteries desirable in applications where crash safety is a high priority.

However the vehicle does need 350kW of power to obtain that 10 minute charge time.

“That’s enough power to blow the fuses on 20 residential homes at once,” said undergraduate student Radu Gogoana.

Fortunately the car can also use a standard domestic outlet which would require an overnight charge.

The motor powering the car is an oil-cooled, three-phase 187 kW induction motor originally designed for electric buses.

Unfortunately the technology is currently worth about US$80,000 though the teams hopes that can be scaled back by mass production.

Each member of the team currently spends about 100 hours a week working on the project called the elEVen. The car is expected to be finished around the third quarter of 2010.

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