Electric cars, we all know how we South Africans resist in buying one, because of two things – infrastructure and of course range anxiety. The race to manufacture a battery with the highest range is actually on right now but there’s another battle to be won; which one will charge up the fastest. Well, Samsung wants to alleviate all these worries with the introduction of its latest battery technology. It says by that by the end of 2020, the “next generation” of Samsung’s lithium ion battery technology will be available to automakers.
According to the folks at Samsung , the proposed new battery will have a range of up to 600 kilometers. While ye, we understand that there are automakers out there who are also making such claims, but Samsung adds a bit of extra information, which is the most important of them all. The company says that the battery can be ‘fast charged’ in just 20 minutes and even at 80 per cent, the battery will have enough juice to run 500 kilometres. While we await to see and hear more about this technology from Samsung, we can’t help but notice that the future is pretty bright for electric cars.
The battery will be produced at the company’s new $357 million plant in Hungary. With a production capability of 50,000 pure electric cars, Samsung will provide battery technology to companies like BMW for the i3, Tesla for the upcoming Model 3, and Ford, whose plans we’ve already told you everything about.
Sehwoong Jeong, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Automotive Battery & ESS Business of Samsung SDI, said, “By providing the industry-leading technologies and products that meet the demand of our customers and market, we will contribute to a rapid market adoption of EVs in North America and worldwide.”
