Engineers at the University of California San Diego are working on a charging algorithm that they say could cut lithium ion battery charging times in half. The algorithms allow researchers to estimate where in the battery lithium ion particles are at any one time, allowing charge to be optimized. The engineers are sharing a $9.6 billion grant from the DOE with auto parts supplier Bosch, and battery manufacturer Cobasys.

Researchers estimate that the improved charge times could reduce cost by about 25 percent. Lithium ion batteries tend to power pure EVs like the Tesla Model S while plug-ins like the Toyota Prius use a nickel-metal hydride pack. And it’s the all electric cars that need improvements in charge times because they theoretically would need a quick charge while road tripping or even at home.

Finally, the research shows a larger trend in power management. While the typical focus is on electrochemical improvements to advance battery technology, more thought is being given to how we might better the algorithms and monitoring software to improve charge times, battery life cycle, and even network batteries across distributed networks.