New, 800V, electric cars, will recharge in half the time

ELECTRIC VEHICLESEVJATOJATOEVEVEVVVGKNV (s) are becoming commoner. Some 750,000 of them were sold in the first quarter of 2021 according to Dynamics, a British consultancy. reckons s now account for just over 4% of new-car sales, up from 2% in the same quarter last year. Yet many potential buyers still suffer from “range anxiety”, a wariness about having to interrupt a long journey while an ’s battery is recharged. The good news is that the time required to do this is about to be slashed.Most s operate at 400 volts (400). But a number of producers and their component suppliers are now gearing up to introduce 800 drive systems. Higher voltages supply the same amount of power with less current, which means electric cables can be made lighter—the consequent weight saving helping to increase a vehicle’s range, says Christoph Gillen, a technology director for Automotive, a British components group which recently announced that it is accelerating its development of 800 drive systems. As most cabling is made from , the price of which has been soaring, this should also save carmakers money.