Air

Segment
Sedan

The Swiss technology company Morand has invented a new battery technology that claims the ability to recharge an electric car's battery to 80% in just 72 seconds. This could not only revolutionize the automotive industry but most likely every sector that will need batteries in the future.

The tech is called Morand eTechnology, and the company is making some truly impressive claims, and that charging time is just one. The company also says that the batteries will be able to last into the tens of thousands of recharge cycles before they begin to degrade. You know it's game-changing stuff when it makes the Lucid Air's 20-minute DC fast charging time look like an eternity.

If the name of this company sounds familiar, it's because it announced a new hypercar last year. That hypercar will be built around this revolutionary technology to allow it to have a top speed of 249 mph and a 0-124 mph sprint time of just 6.3 seconds. The company was founded by Benoit Morand, a former LMP1 and LMP2 Le Mans team manager.

The company's eTech works by using hybrid ultracapacitor cells from the company Sech SA in combination with advanced controllers to safely achieve high levels of battery performance. Independent testing by Geo Technology has shown that the eTech can recharge a 7.2-kilowatt-hour test unit to 98% capacity in 120 seconds at up to 900A/360kW. The technology has supposedly also been demonstrated to complete more than 50,000 charge cycles without degradation, with some going as high as 70,000.

Morand also claims this technology utilizes much fewer precious metals like lithium and cobalt. It's mainly comprised of aluminum, graphene, and carbon, with some other things thrown in. There are already plans to partner with someone to produce the units, and the company wants to ramp up production as soon as possible to substantially lower the technology price. Since the tech is claimed to last much longer than conventional batteries, there's a decrease in long-term costs as well.

The firm sees this as game-changing in any application requiring fast, frequent charges. These include cars, drones, e-bikes, and e-scooters, plus the industries of robotics, agricultural technology, defense, rail, and more. The company is currently attempting to scale production and is seeking additional investment from willing partners, mentioning wanting to partner with companies that have specific or niche applications. It seems the interest is to get the technology into the real world to show its real-world capability and garner bigger investment in the future.

It all sounds very promising, but as it stands, that's about it. Until we see this being used in actual products that can again be independently verified in the real world, it's hard to know how much is actually true or not. As it stands, the time EVs take to charge is the number one black mark against them, and automakers are researching new and innovative ways to get around the problem.

Hopefully, Morand is able to get this technology out to the public soon, and we can see just how well these claims stack up because with NASA recently debuting its own insanely fast charging tech, Morand has some stiff competition.