Charging an electric car in just five minutes and even less is something owners of these vehicles can only dream of for the time being. But according to NASA, it could really happen soon. The news from NASA comes as electric vehicle sales this year are on track to hit an all-time high, according to the International Energy Agency's recently released Tracking Clean Energy Progress update.

Experimental technology used to cool equipment in space could soon cut electric vehicle charging times to five minutes or less, NASA said this week. The federally funded technology, in partnership with Purdue University, says the research they're planning for future space missions shows its technology can charge an electric car in minutes instead of hours.

Using a technique known as "subcooled flow cooking," the technology could increase the amount of electrical power in EV chargers by about 1.400 amps, nearly five times the speed of up to 520 amps currently delivered to EVs, NASA said. . Standard EV chargers that consumers can buy usually deliver less than 150 amps.

Last year, Purdue engineers announced an alternative cooling method by inventing a new patent-pending charging station cable that would fully charge certain electric vehicles in less than five minutes—about the same amount of time it takes to fill a gas tank. This research and development collaboration was funded by Purdue and Ford Motor Co. dating back to 2017.