Shell has unveiled the Triple 10 Challenge concept car, an experimental electric vehicle (EV) built to test how better heat control could improve charging speed, energy use and lifetime emissions.

The compact EV was developed with several engineering partners and is not intended for production. Shell presented it as a working example of how future electric cars may rely on smaller batteries instead of adding more capacity and weight.

Named after its three targets, the car can recharge in less than 10 minutes, travel 10 kilometers per kilowatt-hour and keep its estimated lifetime carbon footprint to about 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

During testing, the battery charged from 10 percent to 80 percent in nine minutes and 54 seconds. It used a 175-kilowatt charger, which is already available in some public charging networks.

Shell said the car gained about 24 kilometers of range for every minute of charging. A typical battery electric vehicle adds an average of about 13 kilometers per minute when connected to the same charger.

The concept uses Shell Recharge thermal fluid instead of the water and glycol mixture found in many cooling systems. The dielectric fluid comes into direct contact with the battery, electric motor and power electronics.

This immersion cooling system uses one circuit to manage heat across the powertrain. It also removes some of the pipes and other components required by conventional systems.

The smaller cooling system helped reduce vehicle weight and allowed the development team to use a more compact battery pack.

Shell estimates that the design could cut battery pack costs by about 25 percent compared with a conventional electric vehicle.

Energy consumption is rated at 10 kilometers per kilowatt-hour. Shell said this represents an improvement of more than 30 percent over many current electric vehicles.

The estimated 10-tonne lifetime carbon footprint assumes the vehicle travels 200,000 kilometers and uses renewable electricity for charging. Shell said actual figures would depend on road use, charging sources and other conditions.

RML worked on the battery architecture, while Empel Systems developed the electric motor and drive units. HORIBA MIRA handled vehicle integration, testing and validation at its proving ground in the United Kingdom.

Shell also said its charging, battery and thermal fluid services will now operate under the Shell Recharge name. The Shell EV-Plus brand will be retired.