Electric cars could be charged in seconds with quantum tech

Scientists at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea say quantum technology could help electric vehicles charge much faster

In less than eight years, the government plans to ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars and vans. So for anyone who wants to buy a new car, electric vehicles (EVs) are likely to become the more common option.

Some people say there are still things putting them off electric cars and one of those issues is the time it takes to charge it.

Charging an electric car can take a up to ten hours at home to 20-40 minutes at the fast superchargers at stations.

At the moment, it can take ten hours to charge an electric car at home

At the moment it takes a lot longer to charge an electric car than fill a petrol or diesel car with fuel.

Now scientists at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea say quantum technology could be the answer.

Quantum physics offers a solution whereby all of the car battery's cells are charged at once, which cuts the charging of the battery down to seconds.

Could new technology make charging electric cars take a lot less time?

The researchers found a typical electric vehicle with a battery containing around 200 cells would recharge 200 times faster.

That would cut the time taken to charge at home from around 10 hours to 3 minutes.

At the fastest charging centres it would go from 30 minutes to seconds!

The researchers say quantum technology is still pretty new and there's a long way to go, but if used they say it would revolutionise "the way we use energy."