Toshiba will launch a new battery that offers 320 kilometres of range in 6 minutes of charging

Toshiba has established itself as one of the leaders in the development of batteries for electric vehicles, supplying models such as the Mitsubishi i-Miev. Now the brand wants to move this technology forward and promises that its new SCiBTM lithium-ion battery reaches 320 kilometres of range with just six minutes of charging.

Toshiba has announced this new battery, which features an innovative niobium titanium oxide material that doubles its capacity and achieves much faster charging times. The brand has confirmed that this technology is still under active development and will progress until it can be fully charged in a couple of minutes, matching petrol and diesel cars.

Charging time is 3 times longer than a conventional battery. This new generation of Toshiba batteries, still in concept form, has already been tested in Japan. The brand has patented a method by which the battery synthesises niobium-titanium oxide in order to store lithium ions more efficiently.

In one of the new test cycles the company has carried out in Japan, Toshiba states that its new generation retains more than 90% of its capacity after more than 5,000 charge/discharge cycles and that, even in cold conditions, charging does not exceed ten minutes.

As well as achieving a charging time three times shorter than current batteries, the next generation of SCiBTM batteries has a lower likelihood of metal deposition during fast charging or charging at cold temperatures.

The development of this technology has been subsidised by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) to promote the use of electric vehicles.

For now, the company has confirmed that it will continue to use its current battery, called SCiB, and that this innovative pack will be available in 2019, although we do not yet know its price.