It's no secret that many people don't like the limited battery range of electric cars. If those batteries could be recharged much quicker, though, that range might not be so off-putting. That's where GBatteries' new pulse-based system comes in – it mayone day be capable of safely recharging an EV battery in a matter of minutes instead of hours.

In typical charging systems, a consistent current is continuously sent to the battery. That current is increased in fast chargers – this unfortunately degrades the battery over time, decreasing its ability to hold a charge. Additionally, overheating of the battery can occur, potentially even causing fires.

Ottawa, Canada-based GBatteries is developing a fast-charging system that reportedly gets around such problems, by delivering a constantly-varying current in successive micro-pulses. An artificial intelligence-based system continuously checks the battery's impedance and other factors, determining whenthose pulses can be sent – and at what voltage – without harming the battery.

"Right now, when a battery is charged, because of the charging protocol that is used – constant current, constant voltage – it's a one-size-fits-all approach, and nothing's really adapted," Chief Commercial Officer and company co-founder Tim Sherstyuk tells us. "The battery is charged at high resistance, so there's a lot of heat that ends up being generated, and irreversible chemical reactions happen."

"With our technology, we're able to identify the threshold during which irreversible chemistry begins to happen, and we charge the battery as much as we can up to that point using a pulse, and then stop, and then do it again and again and again."