Udi Tzuri, VP product, ZOOZ Power looks at an alternative solution for EV charging.
The expansion of public charging infrastructure is highlighting limitations in the grid but the upgrades needed to support fast charging take time and investment to put in place, leaving many EV drivers with a poor charging experience. Flywheel technology can provide an intelligent solution to the problem that can also be readily redeployed to other sites when needed.
In absolute terms, 42 minutes isn’t a long time but when you’re waiting for your EV to charge the time seems to draw out and your thoughts quickly turn to what else you could be doing. And yet 42 minutes was the average duration of a fast EV charging session in the US, based on data collected by the country’s Department of Energy over three years and more than 1,400,000 sessions1.
For sure, many sessions will be much shorter than that – the fastest-charging EVs in the market can add more than 320km of range to the battery in just 12 minutes2 – but only if connected to a 350kW DC charger, and they are few in number. For drivers of mainstream EVs – typically capable of 150-200kW DC – the power available from public chargers often falls short of the maximum rated power, resulting in longer waits, or leaving with less charge than they wanted; either way they’re less likely to visit that site again. In many cases the reason for the poor charging experience is simply because the local grid can’t supply enough power to meet peak demand, and upgrades can take years.
A study commissioned by the California Air Resources Board found that the state – one of the world’s pioneering EV markets – needs investments of around $50 billion to its ageing grid by 2035 to manage peak loads, of which over 60 per cent is accounted for by vehicle electrification3, in line with that year’s ban on combustion engine vehicles. The sheer scale of the investment is daunting enough: whether it can be delivered on time is another issue. The challenges are mirrored in many other locations around the world, simply because grids weren’t designed with EVs in mind.
With the urgent need to rapidly expand public charging infrastructure and provide a reliable fast-EV charging experience ahead of grid upgrades, the ZOOZTER-100 is the ideal solution for this challenge. This kinetic power booster bridges the gap between the growing demand for ultra-fast charging and the constraints imposed by the grid. Developed over more than a decade, it maximizes current capacity even after grid upgrades have been completed. ZOOZTER-100 has already been installed at sites in the UK, US, Germany, and Israel, and additional installations are planned in other countries.
ZOOZTER-100 features our patented flywheel technology at its core. The system draws power from the grid at idle times and converts it to kinetic energy by running the flywheel up to 17,000rpm. When an EV is connected to the charger, the stored energy is converted back into power which boosts the grid, so that the EV receives the combined output of both. This approach enables the charger to operate at peak capacity. At our most recent installations in Germany, such as in Reiskirchen and Weiterstadt, a single ZOOZTER-100 at each location successfully doubled the available power to 200 kW in Reiskirchen and increased it to 350 kW in Weiterstadt.
The ZOOZTER-100’s Energy Management System (EMS) optimizes energy use at charging stations by managing power flow between the grid, ZOOZTER, and EVs. It dynamically adjusts distribution based on real-time demand and availability, maximizing efficiency, reducing charging times, and preventing grid overload. With predictive algorithms, the EMS enhances operational efficiency, supports grid stability, and ensures cost savings for charging operators.
Some may consider battery-based solutions as a competition, but batteries suffer from several distinct disadvantages: They can’t deliver as many charge / discharge cycles so their lifetime is shorter, and they can’t discharge as rapidly. They also use expensive, critical elements such as lithium, nickel, and, and toxic and flammable materials that cannot all be recycled. In comparison, our power boosting solution is more robust, durable, cost-effective, and sustainable.
The combination of all these capabilities enables charge point operators (CPOs) to commission new sites in a relatively short time, without the high capital expenditure, lead times and disruption of grid enhancement, allowing them to quickly generate revenue and support the profitable long-term rollout of ultra-fast charging infrastructure. A single ZOOZTER-100 can support multiple charge points and takes up little space on-site: less than half a car parking space. Another benefit is that the units can be easily relocated in future to new sites that need boosting. These advantages are amplified in locations where very few chargers currently exist, such as rural areas: not only do they have great future potential but are also key to the transition from ICE to EV by complementing – and then superseding – traditional filling stations.
This will be become critical because the market grows faster than the grid, and the disparity is likely to get wider in the short- to mid-term. Europe is a case in point: the European Commission wants to see 3.5 million new charging points installed by 2030, equivalent to nearly 410,000 a year – but ACEA says that only 153,000 were added in 2023, and estimates the 2030 total to be 8.8 million4 charging points. The grid upgrades will come, but until they do, we offer CPOs around the world the ideal solution.
1 https://www.energy.gov/eere/ve...
3 https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/Publi...