AI charging breakthrough extends EV battery life by 23% without sacrificing speed

23% extended EV battery life: New tech tackles risks of fast charging

"This can reduce capacity and may also affect safety, as unevenness in the structure of the lithium can, in a worst case scenario, cause a short circuit," said the researchers in a press release. The researchers found that their AI method maintains charging times within a few seconds of current standard speeds while reducing this internal wear. To address these issues, Professor Changfu Zou and Assistant Professor Meng Yuan developed a strategy based on reinforcement learning. The AI was trained using a digital model of a common electric vehicle battery and simulations of variables that impact both health and charging speed. "The AI model was trained to adapt the charging according to how charged or discharged the battery was at the time of charging," explained the researchers. "It also needed to take into account the overall health of the battery, as this is crucial to both capacity and electrochemistry. The result was a charging strategy that both keeps the charging time short and minimizes harmful reactions." The study demonstrates that it is possible to maintain current charging speeds while reducing long-term degradation. The researchers state that the strategy is cost-effective to deploy because it works through existing battery management hardware.

Smart AI charging helps EV batteries last years longer

Fast charging makes electric vehicles far more practical. It turns a long highway stop into a quick coffee break. For delivery fleets, taxis, and industrial trucks, it keeps business moving. But there has always been a catch: the faster a battery charges, the more stress it takes on. That trade-off has frustrated drivers and automakers for years. People want shorter charging stops, but they also want batteries that hold up over time. Replacing an EV battery can be expensive, and concerns about battery lifespan still make some buyers hesitate before switching from gas-powered cars. Now, researchers say they may have found a way around the problem. A new AI system can adjust fast charging in real time based on the condition of the battery itself. According to researchers from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, the method increased battery life by almost 23 percent without noticeably increasing charging time. Most EV batteries are expected to last around 8 to 15 years, depending on how they are used and charged. Fast charging pushes a large electrical current into the battery cells in a short amount of time. That heat and pressure can slowly damage the battery's internal chemistry. One of the biggest problems is something called lithium plating. Instead of lithium ions settling neatly inside the battery structure, metallic lithium builds up on the electrode surface. Over time, lithium plating reduces battery capacity and can create uneven structures inside the battery. In severe cases, that damage may even increase the risk of a short circuit. "The risk of lithium plating increases with the age of the battery," said study co-author Meng Yuan. "However, the standard methods of charging today use the same current and voltage regardless of whether the battery is new or has been used for years." That point matters because today's charging systems mostly treat every battery the same way. A brand-new battery and a heavily used one receive nearly identical charging patterns, even though they behave differently internally. The new AI system changes the charging current depending on the battery's condition at that moment. It looks at how full the battery is and how much wear it has already experienced. Instead of forcing maximum power at all times, the system constantly adjusts the charge to reduce harmful chemical reactions while still keeping charging speeds high. "We show that it is possible to charge more or less as fast as today, but with significantly less long-term degradation of the battery," said Yuan. The researchers used a type of artificial intelligence called reinforcement learning. This approach trains AI through rewards and penalties. In this case, the system was rewarded for finding charging patterns that kept charging times short while protecting battery health. The AI was trained using simulations based on one of the most common EV battery types currently on the market. Longer-lasting batteries could lower warranty costs for automakers. Used electric vehicles may also keep their value better if buyers feel more confident about battery health. At the same time, extending battery life reduces demand for raw materials such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt, which are costly and energy-intensive to mine. "And for the automotive industry, an almost 23 percent increase in battery life can mean lower warranty costs, better resale value and more efficient use of critical raw materials," said Zou. There is also a larger environmental angle. Manufacturing EV batteries creates a significant amount of carbon emissions. The longer a battery lasts, the more those emissions are spread out over the life of the vehicle. One surprising part of the research is how simple the rollout could be. The researchers say the system could potentially be added through software updates to existing battery management systems. That means automakers may not need to redesign entire batteries or charging stations to use the technology. "There are not so many different battery types today, but the method needs to be calibrated for it to be used by everyone," said Changfu Zou, professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Chalmers. "Using transfer learning, we can take advantage of what our AI model has already learned and thus adapt the AI model to new batteries more quickly." The team still plans to test the method on real physical batteries outside computer simulations. If those tests go well, the technology could eventually appear in future EVs or even in updates to current models. For drivers, the appeal is obvious. Faster charging without extra battery damage removes one of the biggest worries tied to electric vehicles. "To reduce emissions and transition to a fossil-free society, it is important for people to be prepared to switch to electric vehicles," said Yuan. "The possibility of fast charging, combined with increased battery life, is an important driving force." The full study was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification. -- - Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.

EV batteries just need some AI top-up nudge, and they get a big 23% life boost, finds research

Charging fast and lasting long seemed impossible. A new AI trick says otherwise. EV battery charging technology has always had to find the right balance between charging speed and battery longevity. If the charging speed is too fast, it wears down the battery. If the charging is too slow, nobody is happy. Researchers Meng Yuan from Victoria University of Wellington and Changfu Zou from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden may have cracked this long-standing problem using an AI technique called deep reinforcement learning, and the results are pretty encouraging. Recommended Videos Their study, published in IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, introduces a new AI charging system that learns to charge a battery quickly while actively protecting its long-term health. What's different about this new AI-based charging system? The system uses a machine learning method called TD3, which is a fancy way of saying the AI learns by trial and error across thousands of simulated charging sessions. What makes it different is that it adapts its charging strategy based on how degraded the battery already is. Most traditional chargers use a fixed routine. They start with full power and taper off as the battery reaches its capacity. The problem is that this routine doesn't care whether the battery is brand new or has been through hundreds of charge cycles. The new AI-based charging strategy sidesteps this by learning a relationship between the battery's health and the maximum safe charging voltage, then using that information to make smarter decisions in real time. Does the battery last longer? In simulations using a real-world battery model, the proposed method extended battery life by nearly 23% over standard charging methods, reaching 703 equivalent full cycles compared to just 572 with conventional charging. Charging time also remained competitive at around 24 minutes for an 80% charge. The team trained the entire system on a consumer-grade desktop with an Intel i5 processor and an NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU. As the researchers note, this "demonstrates that the proposed framework can be effectively trained on widely available hardware without needing access to specialized high-performance computing clusters." It is still early days, and the method needs testing outside of simulations. But if it holds up, smarter charging could quietly become one of the biggest upgrades your next EV gets.

Scientists Just Discovered A Secret To Make Your EV Battery Live Years Longer

The simulation results are impressive, and could make a huge difference if commercialized. Artificial intelligence is already seeping into cars, with the technology now embedded into everything from autonomous vehicles to voice assistants. A new study now shows that AI could also extend your electric vehicle battery's life significantly by slowing degradation. Researchers at the Swedish Chalmers University of Technology said in a study published in the academic journal IEEE that they had developed an AI-based charging method that can optimize the current during fast-charging cycles, and extend the vehicle's battery life by as much as 23%. That number is huge, representing nearly a quarter of the battery's lifespan. According to some estimates, a Tesla battery can last between 300,000 and 500,000 miles, depending on its usage and charging patterns. A 23% improvement would mean nearly 70,000 extra miles on the low end and over 100,000 more miles on the high end, translating to several more years of usable range for drivers. To be sure, the researchers frame the battery life extension in terms of the number of charge/discharge cycles an EV can handle. "This work introduces the first explicit formulation of a lifelong battery fast charging problem," authors Meng Yuan and Changfu Zou from Chalmers University's Department of Electrical Engineering wrote in the study. "The proposed method achieves a significant improvement in performance, where battery lifespan is extended to 703 equivalent full cycles... representing a 22.9% improvement over the standard baseline." While modern EV batteries are already designed to last for years without defects or significant degradation, frequent fast-charging can accelerate aging. High-powered charging can stress the components inside the cells, potentially causing lithium plating, where ions build up on the anode, causing degradation. The AI-powered battery management system (BMS) aims to avoid exactly that. Researchers at Chalmers used "reinforcement learning" within the BMS. It's a machine learning technique that engineers use in systems to learn through trial and error for the best possible result. On the EV batteries, that means adjusting the current based on the pack's chemistry and state of health during fast-charging cycles. As the battery ages, the AI adjusts the voltage to ensure that aging components like the anode, cathode, and the electrolyte aren't stressed. Americans drive about 13,476 miles each year on average, according to the Federal Highway Administration. For drivers who rely on fast-charging frequently, this new AI-enabled charging method could allow them to keep their EVs for several more years, which is great for their wallets and also good for the environment. Fewer batteries means less need for raw materials and a lower manufacturing-related carbon footprint. However, it's worth noting that this smart charging experiment was conducted in a lab, and not on physical batteries out in the real world. If this is proven in the real world, it could leave a lasting impact on battery warranties, the used EV market, and just how the industry thinks about long-term health and longevity. And the researchers claim their method doesn't just slow down charging to preserve battery health. "The proposed approach maintains comparable charging efficiency while largely extending battery lifespan, demonstrating that lifespan enhancement can be achieved without compromising charging speed," the authors of the study said.

Researchers just figured out how to make EV batteries age more gracefully - Phandroid

One of the less-talked-about downsides of owning an electric vehicle is what fast charging does to the battery over time. Plug in at a DC fast charger enough times, and the battery gradually loses capacity. It's not dramatic at first, but it adds up. Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden think they've found a smarter way to handle it with a new AI EV charging system. The study, published in IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification, shows it can extend battery life by nearly 23% compared to standard fast charging. The charging time barely changes. In testing, the AI-controlled method averaged 24.12 minutes per session versus 24.15 minutes for conventional charging. Effectively the same. Current fast chargers treat every battery the same. A brand-new pack and a five-year-old one get hit with identical current and voltage. That's a problem, because older batteries handle high currents differently. They're more prone to lithium plating, where metallic lithium deposits on the electrode instead of being absorbed correctly. It quietly eats away at capacity. The AI EV charging system from Chalmers works around this using reinforcement learning. That's a method where an algorithm improves its decisions through trial and feedback over time. The AI adapts the charging current in real time based on two inputs: the battery's current charge level and its overall health. The older the battery, the gentler the charge curve. It treats packs more like individuals than identical units. The biggest practical detail is that no new hardware is needed. According to the researchers, it could roll out as a software update to existing battery management systems. It does need calibration for each battery chemistry, so it's not a universal fix out of the box. Battery degradation has always been one of the stickier concerns for people considering the switch to electric. EV battery chemistry is a whole separate conversation, but the core problem is the same: lithium-ion cells don't love the conditions we put them through day-to-day. If this AI EV charging system makes it into real vehicles, that 23% figure could translate to a meaningful extra year or two of useful battery life for drivers who rely on fast charging regularly.