Shell wants your car to charge faster than your phone

EV owners could soon experience a perk that many conventional drivers take for granted: the ability to refuel their vehicles in the time it takes to order a latte.

Last week, oil-and-gas giant Shell unveiled a new battery fluid that could drastically shrink EV charging times, which currently take anywhere from a half-hour to over a day.

• Shell’s “magical” liquid immerses each battery cell in a non-conductive coolant, pulling heat away more efficiently than current plate-based systems.
• In lab demos, a mid-sized EV battery charged from 10% to 80% in just 9 minutes and 45 seconds—without overheating the battery.

But…Bringing this technology to the masses could be a difficult and lengthy process.

Shell plans to showcase its technology at the Battery Show in Detroit this fall, but adoption would require automakers to redesign their battery packs to accommodate the new cooling system. And even the fastest EV charging stations can be limited by grid demand, so Shell’s “10-minute charge” also depends on US infrastructure.

It could charge EV sales

Should a system like this become popular across the US, analysts say it would tackle some of the major obstacles to widespread EV adoption. According to a recent J.D. Power report, the top barriers holding vehicle shoppers back from purchasing an EV are:

1. Lack of charging station availability (51%)
2. Time required to charge (49%)
3. Limited driving distance per charge (47%)

The US is home to ~228,000 public EV charging ports. About three-quarters are Level 2 chargers, which add 20-40 miles per hour of charging, while the other quarter are Level 3 (DC fast chargers) that typically add 180–240 miles in 20–60 minutes.

Big picture: EVs accounted for 7.4% of all new car sales in the US in Q2 2025, while total EV sales through the first half of 2025 stood at a record-high 607,000. Analysts largely attribute the recent sales surge to consumers rushing to lock in Biden-era EV tax credits before they expire at the end of this month.