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Originally Posted by redpoint5
Supercaps are fantastic for things like capturing regenerative braking energy. There might be a use in such an application.
I'm a big fan of supercaps and have replaced the battery in my motorcycle with 6-series caps, but there are severe limitations too. My bike can only sit for 3 days before the electronics drain the caps too far to start the engine.
Supercaps also introduce the problem of supplying the high-rate electricity needed to charge them in seconds to minutes. CCS chargers are already putting out something like 55 kW of energy, and that high rate still takes an hour to charge a vehicle. If we're going to charge faster than that, where are we going to get half a megawatt of energy, and how thick would the conducting wires need to be?
I think supercaps will serve useful functions in the future, but not as primary energy storage for a vehicle.
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You highlighted some of them. Their ability to absorb and dispense large currents is notable. Using this ability allows us to apply them to niche applications.
A local San Diego company, Maxwell Technologies, has battery assist units that are connected in parallel to the batteries of large diesel units to aid in starting in extreme cold where batteries lose their abilities.
They were also tested in a UPS hybrid design where the capacitors could quickly and efficiently absorb the braking energy from the motor/generator for use when the vehicle needed to accelerate again.