BMW and Porsche's next-gen charger gives 100km range in 3 mins

BMW and Porsche have unveiled a pioneering new prototype fast-charger in Bavaria, Germany, that's claimed to be capable of charging a pure-electric car's battery to provide a range of 100km in less than three minutes.

Said to be more than three times quicker than current fast-chargers, the FastCharge unit's creators also claim a typical pure-electric vehicle's battery can be charged from flat to full in less than 15 minutes.

The new "ultra-fast" 450kW charger is the fruit of a partnership between BMW and Porsche and a number of well-known suppliers, like Siemens.

Intending to place the ultra-fast chargers at servos near highways, the creators say a full charge now takes less than the time needed for a conventional fuel stop thanks to the breakthroughs that allow a vehicle's battery to be topped up far faster than current tech.

Conveniently, the ultra-fast charger can be used for any pure-electric car thanks to its sophisticated charge controller, but the powerful new 450kW charger works best with vehicles with 400V and 800V battery systems.

But to get the full 450kW charging capacity you might be in for a long wait.

That's because no current pure-electric car is capable of accepting the full 450kW charge the FastCharge unit is capable of.

The forthcoming Porsche Taycan, for example, is only capable of receiving a 350kW charge (the new Audi e-tron is only 150kW and the Jaguar I-PACE just 100kW), although with the arrival of the new infrastructure it's thought car-makers will be switching their vehicles to be compatible with the high-voltage chargers.

To prove it works, BMW used the prototype FastCharge unit to charge a modified BMW i3 from 10 to 80 per cent in just 15 minutes.

A specially adapted Porsche, meanwhile, proved the ultra-fast charger is capable of charging batteries to provide a 100km in less than three minutes.

However, the new technology has not been without its challenges.

Engineers claim keeping the state-of-the-art charging station cool has been one of the greatest technical problems to overcome. Hence,the charging cables feature their very own cooling system.

For now, the FastCharge station will be free to use in order to allow its makers to monitor its use. If successful, a full network of the ultra-fast chargers are expected to be rapidly rolled out across Europe.