I touched down Saturday in Tokyo so the posts over the next week may have a Japan bent to them. I’ll get to some general observations about the differences between U.S. and Japanese approaches to energy use and conservation later but first wanted to mention a Japanese quick-charging technology for electric cars that may help herald in mass adoption. JFE Engineering says it has developed a charger that needs just 3 minutes to charge a car’s battery 50% and reaches 70% full charge in 5 minutes. As reported on TechCrunch:

In tests JFE conducted with the device, Mitsubishi’s electric car i-MiEV was able to drive for 80km continuously after a 5-minute charge (the vehicle has a driving range of 160km on a full charge). JFE also developed a low-cost version of its charger, which doesn’t require a power transformer and therefore costs just $60,000 to install (roughly half the usual amount). Both that device and the high-cost model meet the specifications of the CHAdeMo standard for electric cars that was brought to life by a group of Japanese and international companies back in March.

The company’s statement about the device is vague, telling us only that “The charging device stores power at night-time in a storage battery incorporated in the device. This power is then transferred to a separate special battery, which discharges to the EV almost instantaneously, enabling charging in a short time of only 3 minutes.”

The company is optimistic about its prospects, however. By March of 2011 JFE expects its charger to be used mainly at gas stations and convenience stores all over Japan.

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