If Tesla Used Ultracapacitors: Super Fast Charging and Lightning Fast Acceleration 

Where do you see ultracapacitors in the next 5 years?

Very well explained...concise and crisp. Keep doing it.

Love your analysis. I had this idea of using capacitors for energy storage. Your video kinda supported my thinking....

thank you, that is very informative

Good reasons for using super caps to help extend battery life.

Combined..... Seems the solution for future.....

So ultrahigh capacitors are analogous to turbo or superchargers in term of acceleration but more than that they are power storage units able to allow devices and EVs to feed off prolonged enegy sources when their internal densities increase with advancements in technology.

Supercapacitors for city buses makes perfect sense already, as shown in the video, they drive a lot every day, with a lot of braking and acceleration so normal batteries in buses would wear down faster than in regular cars. Supercapacitor are much better for regen-breaking than batteries and since buses have to stop often anyway, having them recharge often is no problem at all, infact since super capacitors are expensive they could choose just enough amount of them so the bus could drive the longest distance between charging stations plus a little extra margin to reach the next charger.

I've been saying this for years using ultracapacitor for the bulk of the power and and the regular batteries to charge back up the ultracapacitor

You are brilliant...👍🏼👍🏼

The real benefits are energy recovery which is the utilised for acceleration. Once a mass is moving, the ongoing energy input is smaller compared to getting the mass upto a particular velocity. All that energy is available to be stored when harnessed by super/ultra capacitors. It's like an electric spring.

ALSO regenerative braking is always wasteful of energy as lithium batteries can't deal with so much energy so quickly. Wait for battery day ,a hybrid battery capacitor from Tesla looks imminent considering there recent investments/ purchases

Giant Autonomous Rolling Capacitor (GARC). For charging Tesla Semi (initially, before Megacharger network is up and running, to enable long-haul trucking). GARC sits at Supercharger sipping juice all day and night until a nearby Semi needs it. GARC then ambles autonomously to the nearby Semi, charges it up (a few hrs?, less?), moseys back to Supercharger. Feasible? (technically, economically...)

Check out QUENSOR, a nanoscale ultracapacitor. This invention relates to a solid state Quantum high Energy density Storage Or Retrieval device known as a quensor, and the trademark ENSOR™, having an energy density of about 1-15 kwhr/kg, comparable to gasoline, or more to a theoretical limit of about 75 kwhr/kg, is described. A fundamentally new principle is employed: A quensor film comprises oriented molecules with donor and acceptor groups, and with metal layers on the film surfaces. A dipole electric field may be established in the gap between a donor and an acceptor. Electric energy is stored in or retrieved from dipole electric fields throughout the volume of the quensor film.

These seem perfect for a drag car build. A lot of power for a quarter mile trip shouldn't take much weight in capacitors right? Just recharge between runs.

Cap-XX v Maxwell - Cap-XX v Ioxus/ Ioxus v Cap-XX (PTAB) - Cap-XX v Cornell Dubilier ~ ** Murata / AVX / TDK ** (Interesting to research if you're so inclined) Thanks!

Supercapacitors can play a vital role in the rapid storage and delivery of power. It is without doubt the best way to store energy from regenerative braking, while they have poor energy density this is not about an either/or argument this is a synergy relationship. Also the mass of supercapacitor is much lower.

No to charging: Your sample of 10kWh supercaps would weight 1000kg (at 10Wh/kg), while the battery would weight less than 170kg :) I'll prefer having a 100kWh battery at 340kg any day.

Holy cow. You could easily almost achieve perpetual motion

Amazing that hybrid battery Supercapacitor cars aren't dominant.

Thanks a lot...so helpful video👍

What about if you put solar panels on the car and other energy producing devices which super capacitors enable to absorb both regenerative braking and renewable energy?

Why would you need lightning-fast acceleration? Look at the streets in your neighborhood. I spent last year a few weeks on the Autobahn, those fairly empty & completely rebuilt "corridors" between Berlin and the rest of the country. 18 inches of concrete topped with a lasting asphalt mix. challenging

That's an incredible improvement in the ultra-capacitor.

Very good analysis on hi capacitors. Your amazing. Keep it up.

Put the super capacitors in the front trunk.

So, this is how Elon will make his Roasters fly? Capacitors + batteries = the best of both worlds! Incorporate graphene... Whoosh!!!

Any comment or news on Maxwell's on-going court case for long-standing infringement of supercapacitor patents belonging to Cap-XX? Maxwell Technologies vs Cap-XX

The supercapacitor/lithium ion battery relationship is analogous to the turbo charger of an ICE.

Definitely for sure. Capacitors and battery combo. Maybe places in lightning alley can finally figure out how to store Lightning’s power.

Subscribed thanks for great content

Great video. Super caps should be used as a buffer to protect the battery pack from rapid charge and discharge. And the most fun use, as you pointed out, is you could stop and fill a super cap in seconds and it could run the charger as you drive for a time. Good things coming.

Keep them separate, use both in conjuction. all the moving parts can also generate power using a dynamo in reverse polarity. Use this energy to charge the supercapaciters instead.

Curious why Tesla hasn't gotten into EV motorcycles. Or midsize pickups.

Wow, some good Supercapacitor electric news. The Kansas 2023 State Fair had no electric mowers or cars. Just some basic electric golf carts. 🤣

Super capacitors could replace friction brakes. That’s another service item not needed. They could also be used to extract energy from suspension dampers . Or more importantly control how the suspension behaves.

The faster the charge, the higher the current. The higher the current the thicker the cable need to be. The thicker the cable the HEAVIER the cable. To charge a 120kilowatt hour supercapicity in seconds most people would NOT be able to LIFT the cable.

I agree...ultracapacitors and battery combination is coming soon to Tesla vehicles. I think around 30% ultracapacitor capacity, combined with 70% battery capacity would likely be ideal.

In conjunction! Only sensible possibility in the “near” future. But I don’t now everything yet ;) Great explanation!

I have been saying this sense 2012 Chemical engineer ( battery ), let regen charge capacitors and use capacitors for launch mode

I thought of this concept in late '80s I made an electric toy car with capacitors and batteries

Really liked your presentation. We won't need batteries if we can improve energy storage density of super capacitors further. I would love to see super capacitors replacing fuel tanks of today. Immortality of IC engine's as claimed by hard core mechanical engineers will be proven wrong.

yes agree, I was thinking this exact application as you talk about.

Your suggestion for the super capacitor is fantastic!

alternators plus s caps

Great and logical arguments. Congrats! 😊

This would be THE game changer. Let's hope it comes soon

Thanks for a very interesting video. I appreciate the time you put into your research and putting it altogether for us.

Elon said this year that they don't need to usa SC in the regular cars. Tesla is trying to build SC like microprocessors are.

Great in depth analysis! Thanks

This is off topic, but I envy this guy's beard. Mine is all patchy, I look like a homeless dude when I let it grow.

Yes at last someone who has proposed an appropriate combination of batteries and ultracaps caps (fast charge, regen, battery life...). Good to have an authoratative info on weight and costs. I suspect 1kwh combined with savings on batteries e.g panasonic will lead to similar battery and capacity at similar cost. Particularly if you could put it in the same package.

It takes 3.6 million farads to store 1 kilowatt hour of electricity. Seems like they still have a long way to go.

I appreciate your hard work! I believe Ultra capacitor is the future, and it will be replacing the battery by 80 % but there would still some use for batteries!!

Excellent presentation! Let' go to this kind of hybrid!

Great idea on super capacitors for regenerative braking and saving battery waste. Surprised Tesla isn’t staying ahead of the curve. Where is all the great Engineers to make this happen.

Great topic. Thank you for sharing.

Probably first adapted on electric race cars due to high specific power, then used on commercial vehicles as energy density increases

Seems to me ultra capacitors would be really great for regenerative breaking. You get a lot of power in a short time. Then apply that to get back up to speed or to charge the batteries. Or am I missing something?

Super capacitors are coming making batteries obsolete

I think some combo will be the first way to go with cars and eventually perhaps some battery capacitor hybrid will eventually be a thing.

Battery day will blow your mind

Very good start down this avenue of speculation. Only one criticism. In places you seem to use ultra/super-capacitors and capacitors interchangeably, which is confusing. As you know, they are not the same as per the graphic at 1:11 (“hybrid super capacitor” is the same as a hybrid capacitor) and the Maxwell graphic at 2:55 on your last video. Related but different. As to your short clip of the Khan Academy interview, to get the full flavor of Elon's interest in capacitors you need to view from 6:30 to about 10:30; all the way through the Pinnacle Research discussion. And, realize that when he says "capacitors" he means hybrid electrolytic capacitors, he does NOT mean electrostatic ultra-capacitors. More fodder to chew on: On their Q2 2016 (August) earnings call, Maxwell CEO Franz Fink said: "I'm excited to announce that we have achieved our first milestone towards commercialization. Last month, we signed a 12-month joint development agreement with one of the world's leading automotive OEMs to develop a proof-of-concept that, if successful, could lead to the world's first electric drive train based on our technology, targeting a 2021 auto platform launch." In hindsight (based on the Schedule 14D-9 filing), the OEM was almost certainly Tesla. Although "our technology" definitely includes Dry Battery Electrode, how could a better electrode formation method be characterized as leading "to the world's first electric drive train BASED on our technology"? In 2006, this statement would suggest that their ultra-caps were going to be integrated with batteries. However, by then, their "L-Cap" hybrid capacitor was certainly well along within the confines of Maxwell because only three months later it was publicly unveiled and announced to be in a commercial (rail) application. The 2021 auto launch target lines up nicely. Fodder item #2: On the Q4 2019 Tesla conference call in response to a direct question from an analyst, Elon said, "… ultra-cap technology is an important piece of the (Battery Day) puzzle." IMO, "ultra-cap technology" does not equal only ultra-capacitors. Maxwell has often stated that their L-Cap was developed as an offshoot; based on a series of technological discoveries made while trying to improve the performance (especially energy density) of their ultra-caps. My guess: hybrid lithium capacitors (L-Caps) will make up about one-third of the car's power pack with the remaining two-thirds lithium batteries (of any chemistry). A variety of efficiencies from this combination will mean significant improvements in all performance metrics and cost reductions to the point of price parity with comparable ICE cars. (I believe you are substantially overestimating the cost of L-Caps.) The super/mega chargers will include L-Caps and/or traditional ultra-caps with very rapid power transfer eliminating the time-to-charge barrier. Eventual replacement of lithium batteries with all L-Caps in 3 years is possible.

I thought they are already using Ultra Capacitors for initial acceleration and for recovery braking. Also i thought that this also makes the regular battery life longer. Nice video - thx for the information. Have to admit that I did NOT realize that the cost of Super Caps are about 15x more than the regular batteries.

There is a bright future for cars, maybe there will be no need to charge batteries, a Self charging battery car is coming soon.

Best use of ultracapacitors would be for acceleration/regen. 0.25 kWh supercap would be enough for 0-60-0 mph (0-100-0 kph) cycle without torture of the main battery. Gravimetric penalty woud be 25 kg (if we assure 10 Wh/kg). Forget charging until much higher specific energy.

This channel keeps getting better and better. Keep up the good work 👍

Thank you for your informative and knowledgeable video's. I subscribed to your channel and won't miss out on your future videos. Keep up the good work. I am a Tesla shareholder and we'll share your videos with others. 👍

I think it makes 100% sense for all the reasons you mentioned. Think of the human muscle. We have slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers built into us after hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. I would like to think that the human body is one of the most refined pieces of technology on the planet so it only makes sense to have a hybrid slow and fast energy charge and release battery system just like the human muscle.

Thank you, keep them coming.!

Great show... keep up the good work!

Finally someone who feels the same way about capacitors as I do, I think they will be the next leap for charging and discharging, After battery day of course. I think we could see them in the roadster there's plenty of Room for profit and To make the next super car, The fastest time from 0 to 100 back down to 0

Thanks for linking me to this video. I'm excited for the future of graphene and I am eager see how this product will change the world in the next several decades. If you hear of any public companies besides tesla or Panasonic making advancments please let us know as i am wanting to put some money in this, cheers.

Hiii!!! Very informative video, by its content we can see your effort that you have put into it. My request, can anyone share me calculations for comparative studies between supercapacitor and lithium ion batteries required for any load (Motor Load) in electric vehicle.. that would be do great help, as I am from Mechanical background facing issue while doing the calculations

Car is car. Car is not a battery ! Tesla will never be the world 1st battery firm.

Thanks for the presentation, and thanks to the people developing this fantastic technology.

Fantastic presentation

I don’t get it, super caps are just like batteries but worse on pretty much everything. Why bother? Don’t see them catching up to the moving target of batteries. Because of charging time? Good luck plugging in that cable. Maybe a tiny one for higher regen. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I can definitely see this weaponized taser guns that could melt your enemy and flexible armour that can stop bullets and knives.

Do you think that in the future just by driving the EV could recharge the battery if it became low on energy .

I suspect this solution may be one of the subjects of the upcoming Battery Day!

Very interesting video! Greetings from Dominican Republic!

This is hoping that technology will make our lives easier

I see a future where you will have a smaller battery pack to reduce cost and a built in charger recharges the battery when it is driven or parked. Every house will have one. We will be free of oil, solar, coal, and nuclear power. Nikola Tesla's vision of the future.

Hii iam new to u r channel any ppt on super capacitor please send me bro

this is amazing! I love technology!

thank's this was fantastic, bringing a novice like me up to speed

Your analogy of filling a glass of water is not very similar to charging a battery. Instead, it is more like pumping up your bicycle tires with air.

Can you discharge a super capacitor slowly?

Ultracapacitors was such a hot topic last year. Especially in combination with batteries. What happened to them this year?

Very informative thank you

love it

a commercial every 3 minutes - come on man.

Just use ultra-mega-super-capacitors that can unleash gazzillion watts of power to charge the "normal supercapacitors" in an EVs. I bet Elon would like that.

I have not seen mention or discussion (here or elsewhere) of the inherent rate of phantom drain of super/ultra capacitors in comparison to lithium ion batteries. As a general rule I thought it was fairly well known and understood that capacitors do not hold a charge well over time in comparison to batteries. Am I wrong about that? Is there anybody knowledgeable on this subject as it may be a significant factor that is germane to the technical limitations and economics? Regardless of charging speed and performance, a large super/ultra capacitor system would make no sense if it is subject to a daily phantom drain rate that may exceed 5% to 10% of capacity. For purposes of instantaneous performance and regenerative braking, something like a small 1 kWh super/ultra capacitor paired to a standard lithium ion battery system might make sense if one considers the phantom drain rate of the capacitor when the car is inactive to be a de minimis economic loss. However, if a larger super/ultra capacitor system goes from fully charged to dead within just a few days of inactivity this may present a very significant technical and economic problem. BACKGROUND: I attended a local car show a few years ago where there were several guys displaying lowriders equipped with custom high power electric/hydraulic systems to make the cars bounce. Most had a bank of lead acid batteries in the trunk to power the electric/hydraulic system. However, one guy had an ultra capacitor system in the trunk. In comparison to the lead acid battery systems, it was much smaller and lighter and did not wear out. I was somewhat surprised to learn the ultra capacitor system was wired up to charge from the car's stock alternator/electrical system with a simple manual disconnect switch. Under normal circumstances the system is switched to off. He only switches the system on when he wants charge and activate the bouncing system. He explained the inherent phantom drain the ultra capacitor system would quickly drain the car's lead acid battery if it was left on when the car is not running.

Yes, Ultra-capas are the salution for ultra fast chaging on fast chargers, and even make them change the cars in minutes. Tesla Supercharger's or Megachargers, can maybe with lage supercapactiors change in seconds, and distribute over time all, or mutch of their energy to the battary, wile you driving. I am yousing Tesla's superchager as an example, because they have a verry good batterymanigment system on there batteries. And they can also reprogramming the batterymaigmentsystem to change slowly from the supercapactiors change, and the supercapactiors can take the energy instently, or verry fast from the chargers, and regenerating from the motors, or generators in the wheels.

In the HVAC industry I have witnessed compressor "start capacitors" explode even the new solid state caps sound like a high powered rifle. Super cap's compacted in a vehicle could be worse than lithium batteries catching fire. I think this safety issue needs to be greatly considered! Lightening bolt and thunder clap possibility. Nicola Tesla preached that the energy in the atmosphere could provide us with all our energy needs. Ionized air friction while driving Imagine a whip antenna & grounding tires being able to harness static charges while we are driving. Super caps make this also a potential possibility. Instead of the charges being built up to the point of a lightning strike it bleeds the differential static charges in the atmosphere. Nikola Tesla was really on to something here and I am just realizing how this could work.

Great video ! Well delivered too. The highways will change in order to be able to charge super caps on the fly. You can bet Ford and GM have thought of this already. They have the legislative experience needed. If you can acquire an hours driving time in 10 seconds of on the road charging then no charging stations needed! It's time to leapfrog this technology before China does it for us! 5 ten second charging strips gets you 350 miles! I'll take one! Blimps in the sky connected by copper cables charge, on the fly, motored glider styled planes that go 300 MPH!

Good program 🤓

Manthini has just come out showing a system like this used in an ebike.