Shell’s New Cooling Fluid Promises EV Charging in the Time It Takes Coffee to Cool
en minutes. That’s how long it takes your morning coffee to become drinkable—and, according to Shell, it’s also how quickly an electric car can now charge to 80 percent thanks to a breakthrough in thermal management. If true, the age of the fossil-fueled pit stop may soon be confined to history books.
Shell Lubricants has unveiled Shell EV-Plus, a new immersion-cooling fluid that slashes charging times from hours to minutes. The system allows an EV battery to jump from 10 to 80 percent in under ten minutes, with one minute of charging delivering up to five times more range than today’s standard systems. The implications are profound: for years, slow charging has been one of the biggest obstacles to mass EV adoption, with surveys showing that 44 percent of consumers in Europe, the U.S., and China cite charging time as a deal-breaker.
The challenge has always been heat. Ultra-fast charging generates enormous thermal stress, degrading cells and, in extreme cases, risking catastrophic failure. Most current systems rely on indirect cooling, which fails to dissipate heat evenly. Shell’s approach is more radical: immersion cooling, where cells are submerged directly in a non-conductive liquid that floods every gap, carrying heat away uniformly.
Working with Britain’s RML Group, Shell developed a 34 kWh battery prototype demonstrating the technology. Using EV-Plus fluid and Shell’s GTL-based chemistry, the pack can be charged to near full in just ten minutes. To put that in perspective, imagine a lightweight, aerodynamic EV capable of 10 km per kWh: in just a single minute on the charger, it would gain around 24 km of range—outpacing even industry leaders like the Lucid Air Pure.
Shell will formally debut EV-Plus this October at the Battery Show North America in Detroit, timed to coincide with surging demand. Global EV sales rose 14 percent in 2024 compared with the previous year, and buyers are increasingly unwilling to compromise on convenience. If Shell’s technology can deliver charging that feels as seamless as grabbing a pump handle at the gas station, the electric car may finally claim the crown as the default choice—even for the most hardened skeptics.
