The Super Charge Battery From Toshiba: Charging Technologies Articles: Eco20/20

The Super Charge Battery From Toshiba

The super charge ion battery (SCiB) marked Toshiba's entry into the world of advanced lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. Superior to other battery types in a number of ways, Li-ion batteries had a distinct disadvantage, mainly lengthy recharge times.

Toshiba's SCiB features a five minute charge time which will bring the battery up to a 90% charge, plus it can handle a maximum of 6000 charge cycles without losing a large portion of its power. This makes the Toshiba SCiB a major competitor for similar advanced or super Li-ion battery types, including the Altair Nano's nano-titanate cell.

Toshiba already had a laptop that was capable of charging up to 90% of its capacity in just five minutes. Other similar lithium battery types should not be charged this quickly or it will damage the cells and lead to premature battery degradation. The lithium iron phosphate battery type for instance should not be charged faster than "15-20 minutes" (Pease 2008).

The SCiB technology is also being used in an electric bicycle (which would have a 30 minute charging cycle). Toshiba partnered with Schwinn for this project. Toshiba had other plans related to this battery technology, none of which included electric cars at the time. Although Toshiba would seem to be the perfect company to step into this arena, the press release they issued agreed that while they had some plans to move into hybrid cars and then to electric cars in the future, they planned to focus on other aspects of the technology first.

Price is currently an issue with the super Li-ion battery types, with many out of the average shopper's already tight budget. Toshiba has better access to manufacturing, plus working capital and could bring the price down considerably as these become more popular and in higher and higher demand.

Most people do not realize that their batteries need to be charged until they go to use the device that they are in. They also do not realize that some batteries will go flat simply from inactivity (lithium ion batteries in particular), and that they will need to replace or recharge them frequently. If you are heading out the door and need your camera, camcorder, or other device; you do not have time to stand and wait for 15-20 minutes for charging. With the SCiB, it is possible to have your device up to 90% of power in five minutes.

References:

Karen Pease. Toshiba's Super-charged Battery: Nearly Full in 5 Minutes. Posted October 4, 2008 on http://gas2.org/2008/10/04/toshiba-super-charged-battery-nearly-full-in-minutes. Retrieved on August 16, 2009.