Geneva, Switzerland - Perhaps the issue of range anxiety that has dogged attempts to get electric-car technology up and running (if you'll forgive the pun) would not be such a deal-breaker if it was possible to 'refuel' a battery-powered vehicle in a couple of minutes, the way you can with a combustion-engined car.
At the inception of the Formula E electric-car racing series, it was mooted that the car's batteries could be detached and replaced with freshly-charged ones during a pit-stop - just like the battery on a cordless screw-driver - but due to safety considerations this has now become a complete car swop, which rather defeats the object of the exercise.
But now Swiss company ASEA Brown Boveri has come up with what it says is a viable electric alternative to diesel buses - without overhead lines or other external power input.
The secret is a new type of battery pack that'll take a SIX HUNDRED KILOWATT power dump for 15 seconds without bursting into flames or twisting itself into a multi-coloured pretzel. That's enough to load 2.5kWh of charge into the battery in a quarter of a minute - a refuelling rate few petrol pumps can match.
More than that, ABB has designed a self-connecting system that'll hook itself into the flash charger in less than a second, by sliding the roof-mounted battery pack under an overhead power gantry, a system that has been proven in over decades in electric railway systems. From start to finish, the whole cycle takes appreciably under 20 seconds, less time than it takes half a dozen passenger to get on or off at a bus stop.
Successful pilot project
This is not laboratory science; ABB has a successful pilot project running between Geneva airport and the Palexpo exhibition centre, home of the Geneva motor show, and now it has been awarded a contract to supply a dozen electric flash-charge buses for one of Geneva's busiest bus routes, carrying more than 10 000 passengers a day, as well as 13 flash-charge stations (one at each bus-stop) to keep them running non-stop.
And at the end of the line, another four or five minutes on the charger will fully recharge the batteries for the start of another round trip.
Let's take that one step further, shall we? Imagine driving your battery-powered family car in under a gantry at the local garage and getting a full charge in less time than it takes the cashier to swipe your debit card and accept payment for it - could this be the battery breakthrough we've been waiting for?
The transport division of Geneva municipality is willing to bet the equivalent of R230 million on it.