This is a massive breakthrough. 18 minutes is still a bit longer than your average gasoline fillup, but it becomes much more palatable if you are traveling cross country and need to recharge. No longer is it an over night stop.
One of our authors talked about his son’s electric vehicle, taking a trip to DC. Because of the stops and, of course, the route he had to take to get to recharging stations, the trip took more than 3 times as long as a gas powered vehicle would have.
Techwise, it is an 800 volt system, it requires 18 minutes to get to a 90% charge, available in the Hyundai Ioniq5 and Kia EV6.
The barriers I described in a paper more than 20 years ago were twofold
1. It needs to beat the Corvette in the 1/4 mile. Tesla has done this handily.
2. It needs to be as convenient as gasoline to fill up, meaning a reasonable recharge time.
Watch for EV sales to pick up after this.
