Charging electric vehicles five times faster in below‑freezing temperatures.

Engineering student Chloe Acosta plugs in an EV for charging in snowy weather on the University of Michigan’s North Campus. EV charging becomes less efficient in colder weather, but a new strategy for manufacturing battery electrodes could enable charging in 10 minutes in temperatures as cold as -10C. Image credit: Marcin Szczepanski, Michigan Engineering

University of Michigan engineers have developed a revised battery manufacturing technique for electric vehicles that could deliver both extended driving range and rapid charging performance in freezing conditions—addressing the cold‑weather challenges that often discourage prospective EV owners.

“We believe this method can be integrated into existing battery production facilities with minimal modifications,” said Neil Dasgupta, U‑M associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and engineering and corresponding author of the study in Joule.

This work is the first to demonstrate a method that delivers ultra‑fast charging in cold conditions without compromising lithium‑ion battery energy density.

Batteries produced with this modified electrode design can recharge up to five times faster at temperatures as low as 14 °F (–10 °C). The team’s tailored structure and surface coating prevent harmful lithium plating on the electrodes, so these cells retain 97 percent of their capacity even after 100 rapid‑charge cycles in freezing temperatures.

Conventional EV batteries depend on lithium ions shuttling between electrodes through a liquid electrolyte, a process that slows dramatically in the cold—reducing both power output and charging speed.

To boost range, automakers have thickened their electrode layers, which increases stored energy but also makes some lithium harder to access. That trade‑off leads to slower charging and less power per unit weight.

Earlier, Dasgupta’s group boosted charging performance by carving roughly 40‑micron channels into the anode—the electrode that takes in lithium ions—using laser ablation. These pathways let ions penetrate quickly and deeply into the graphite, yielding a more uniform charge distribution.

Although this modification sped up room‑temperature charging, it didn’t help much in the cold. The team traced the issue to the solid‑electrolyte interphase—a chemical film that forms when the electrode reacts with the electrolyte. Dasgupta compares it to butter: it’s easy to slice when warm but far tougher when chilled. Trying to fast‑charge through that hardened layer causes lithium metal to plate onto the anode, creating a “traffic jam” of ions.

“That plating blocks parts of the electrode, cutting into the battery’s total capacity,” says Manoj Jangid, a U‑M senior research fellow and co‑author.

To stop that film from forming, they coated the electrode with a ~20 nm glassy layer of lithium borate‑carbonate. This barrier dramatically improved cold‑temperature charging, and when combined with the laser‑drilled channels, their test cells charged five times faster at subfreezing temperatures.

“By merging 3D electrode architectures with an engineered interface, our approach tackles the challenge of ultra‑fast, low‑temperature charging without sacrificing driving range,” explains Tae Cho, a recent Ph.D. graduate and the study’s lead author.

Over the past twenty years, electric vehicles have become more common as drivers seek greener options, but AAA survey data suggest that enthusiasm is waning. From 2023 to 2024, the share of U.S. adults who said they were “likely” or “very likely” to buy a new or used EV fell from 23% to 18%, while 63% described themselves as “unlikely” or “very unlikely” to make an EV their next vehicle. Much of the hesitation stems from reduced driving range and slower charging in cold weather—issues that were widely reported during the January 2024 cold snap.

“Even with aggressive fast charging, topping up an EV battery takes 30 to 40 minutes, and in winter that time climbs past an hour. That’s the pain point we want to address,” said Dasgupta.

Next steps to develop factory‑ready processes are funded by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation through the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) Advanced Transportation Innovation Hub.

The devices were developed at the U-M Battery Lab and analyzed at the Michigan Center for Materials Characterization.

With support from U-M Innovation Partnerships, the team has filed for patent protection. Arbor Battery Innovations has acquired a license for the channel technology and is actively working to bring it to market. Both Dasgupta and the University of Michigan hold a financial stake in Arbor Battery Innovations.