The battery of the future

Nobody escapes the fact that the future of the automotive industry goes through electrification. Currently there are many brands that are committed to the micro hybridization of their engines, but this is only an intermediate step between the car powered by fossil fuel and the electric car.

The great bet of the electric car requires an optimization in the size and operation of the battery . On the one hand, it is almost mandatory to offer similar levels of autonomy and charging times that can compete with vehicles equipped with internal combustion engines. On the other hand, it also becomes imperative to reduce the weight of a battery. For example, a Renault Zoe weighs 1,545 kilos and a Renault Clio TCe 66 weighs 1,082 kilos.

Short term

In a period of four or five years we will be able to see electric vehicles with a real autonomy of about 600 kilometers thanks to the technical improvements applied to the battery.

Cars like the Opel Ampera-e equip one of the most modern batteries currently manufactured. Manufactured by LG Chem, the battery in this Opel is made from a combination of cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel capable of generating enough electricity to move the car for about 350 kilometers in real conditions of use.

This type of compound battery has a useful life that doubles that of current lithium ion batteries, although it is also true that it weighs approximately ten percent more than current batteries and that the cost of producing them increases by more or less the same percentage.

Solid electrolyte battery

Expected for the year 2020,  a solid electrolyte has more density than a liquid one and allows this type of battery to store more energy than, for example, a lithium salt battery. It also minimizes the appearance of dendrites , repetitive structures characteristic of the first phases of crystal growth and that can produce short circuits within the battery.

These dendrites, due to their chemical composition, are bodies that may or may not be conductors of electrical energy. For example, ionic and covalent crystals offer a lot of resistance to the conduction of heat and/or electricity, and molecular crystals are totally insulating in this regard. These three types of crystals limit the charging capacity of the battery, since in its formation the electrolyte is destroyed and, therefore, the electrolysis process is limited.

There is a fourth type of crystals, the metallic ones, which are characterized by having few electrons in the outermost layers and being positively charged. This means that in its formation it destroys the electrolyte and also, once the molecule is formed, it absorbs the negatively charged electrons that are stored. This is called chemical stability in the valence shell, which translated means that all molecules tend to have eight electrons (stability) in their last shell (valence shell).

The advantages of the solid electrolyte battery is that it heats up much less and is less prone to degradation , which means that it is able to maintain its storage capacity for many more charging processes.

Graphene in the battery of the future

For years, scientific research programs have been thinking a thousand and one times about graphene, that material composed of pure carbon arranged in a regular hexagonal pattern that seems to be present in all aspects of our daily lives as long as it is possible to lower the current price of US$300 per gram, of course. Of course, once the price drops, it is expected that graphene will also reach the battery of the electric car.

According to what was experienced in the first prototypes, a graphene battery has an energy density that is five times that of current lithium batteries , due to its chemical composition the risk of explosion is almost zero and in the event of a short circuit only the part would be inoperative. damaged.

Among the advantages of the graphene battery in relation to the current ones is its greater capacity, its lower weight for equal volume and its unbeatable charging capacity, ( a 100 kWh battery could be charged in less than ten minutes ).

Among its disadvantages we can highlight that they would not reach the market before ten or fifteen years and that the only Spanish company dedicated to the investigation of graphene batteries, and which was a world reference, has recently been accused of fraud and is being investigated by the National Securities Market Commission.

When I was little they said that in the year 2000 cars would fly and would not have a driver. I would like to return to this article in the year 2030 and be able to analyze what the current forecasts are . Of course, something tells me that the evolution of batteries will surprise us year after year.

Second-life batteries

HPC Park with second-life batteries

Volkswagen has launched a fast-charging park at its Zwickau electric car plant, which gets much of its energy from a so-called Power Storage Container (PSC). In the future, the solution will also be used in residential areas, for example, since it is not necessary to install a medium voltage transformer for the PSC.

The energy storage container consists of 96 cell modules with a total net capacity of 570 kWh , which were fitted to pre-production ID.3 and ID.4 vehicles and are given a" stationary draw- in operation", according to the statement. The PSC is a" cost-effective volition to the motor station". Before the end of the year, three fast-charging parks will be put into operation at the factory facilities.

The Zwickauer Tor West charging station consists of 4 charging columns with 2 charging points each. Each column offers up to 150 kW of power or 2 x 75 kW if both charging points are occupied. The electricity for the charging park is generated, among other things, in the photovoltaic system located directly next door and is otherwise drawn from the grid - since Volkswagen Saxony has been buying green electricity since 2017, all vehicles are They thus charge with 100% renewable energy.

With the PSC, Volkswagen Saxony relies on a solution thatAudi is already using it successfully for the first time at the Audi Charging Hub in Nuremberg . The container cubes are made up of used lithium-ion batteries, which (in the Nuremberg case) come from dismantled Audi test vehicles and serve as intermediate storage for direct current.

The statement does not specify which connected load the 570 kWh PSC from Zwickau requires. However, with a storage drive of this size, various fast charging processes are possible; the network, instead, is only loaded with the lowest connected load. VW also mentions another advantage in the press release: intermediate energy storage should avoid the high base costs that would otherwise occur in standby mode, even if no vehicle is being charged . The transformation centers of the rapid recharging parks, which are connected to the medium voltage network, work 24 hours a day; furthermore, the initial investments for these devices may be high.

Like Audi, VW Saxony sees the first charging park with second-life storage as a pilot project to gain experience with the technology. The advantage is that fast charging infrastructure can be built almost anywhere, even in places with a low-capacity network connection. Residential areas are one example of where it could be used the statement says. However, the scalability of these second-life storage charging solutions naturally depends on the availability of retired battery cells. If new cells were installed in intermediate storage units, the initial investment would also be significantly higher in this case.

"The reuse of batteries is important for the future and is closely linked to the acceleration of the trend towards electric mobility" , says Karen Kutzner,  General Manager of Finance and Control of Volkswagen Saxony. "With the energy storage container, Volkswagen Saxony is demonstrating a practical, cost-effective and useful case for enabling end-of-life cell modules to have a second life. This automotive power bank could be used wherever the capacity connection to the grid is too low but there is demand for a powerful charging infrastructure. Innovative ideas like this could give new impetus to the creation of a fast charging infrastructure."

 

Tesla planning to start production o4680 cells at Texas Giga

Tesla plans to start production of 4680-format battery cells at the Texas Gigafactory this quarter and outperform the Kato pilot line there, near the Fremont, California, car plant, by the end of the quarter. of year.

This was explained by the head of Tesla, Drew Baglino, during the analyst conference on the latest quarterly figures. Currently, the production of 4,680 cells on the pilot line is still not enough for 1,000 vehicles per week. The challenge remains to control the production processes of new technologies, including dry electrodes. As the "Electric" portal extrapolates , this can be cross to an annual production storage of the less than  Four GWh.

But: Being a pilot line, the four GWh or 1,000 vehicles per week limit is not surprising. Large-scale production is expected to change this soon. Specially for Texas, the installation of cell equipment and commissioned last quater, and our first produced test vehicles with Texas cells " said Baglino. "Our goal for Texas is to start production this quarter and Texas should be able to surpass Kato's weekly production before the end of this year .Kato" is Tesla's current pilot line in Fremont, located on Kato Road. This facility is often referred to as Tera.

But Tesla has also made progress at Kato recently: Since March, production has risen 35% each month, Electrek writes, citing the analysts' call.

At Giga Texas in Austin, which opened in April, Tesla is building the standard-range version of the Model Y, which is only available in North America, with all 4,680 cells and structural battery packs . However, the Model Y Long Range, now being built there as well, will probably still use conventional battery packs with the smaller 2170 cells.

According to Tesla, it does not depend on the progress of 4680 production in California and Texas: Elon Musk explained that Tesla has enough cells of the 2170 format to cover all vehicle production for the rest of the year. He stressed that the 4680 cells will become important in 2023, not this year.

Furthermore, Tesla's perspective is not to rely solely on its own 4680 production: Tesla's partner Panasonic shipped the first 4680 sample cells to Tesla and began its own pilot production in Japan in May. The battery factory for series production is probably be built in Kansas in last week. Samsung SDI is building its pilot line of the 4680 in Cheonan, with serial production said to take place later in Malaysia.

Solid State Batteries Svolt reaches the 400 Wh/kg

Battery cell maker SVOLT, spun off from Chinese automaker Great Wall, reports progress in developing solid cells. The company claims that it has successfully developed and tested 20 Ah cells with solid sulphide-based electrolyte.

This type of cells offering an energy density from 350 to 400 Wh/kg . According to forecasts, this should make a range of more than 1,000 kilometers possible with the cells of the later series in an electric car.

Tests that the 20 Ah prototype cell has already undergone reportedly include the usual Chinese nail penetration test and heating the battery cell to 200 degrees Celsius. The results are not mentioned directly in either case, it is only said that these tests have been successfully passed.

And, the SVOLT Energy  a division of China's has been hard work to create  a true value of solid state batteries for long year now, this week CnEVPost is report the SVOLT Energy this company is the first to create a prototype 20 Ah solid-state sulfide battery cells, Once the cells are commercially available then after they could be possible to make electric vehicles to drive at approx 1,000 kilometer or more on a single charger, with the help of company and team under the step process.

The 20 Ah cell is the fifth generation. Starting with the mAh range, the capacity has increased from one and five Ah to first ten and now 20 Ah. The cell is being developed at SVOLT's Solid State Battery Laboratory. It is a laboratory resulting from the merger of SVOLT's Wuxi Lithium Battery Innovation Center with the Ningbo Institute of Materials Engineering and Technology.

But there also appears to be progress in increasing production. According to the report, the synthesis of the sulfide-based electrolytic material is already in the kilogram range, but it is still a long way from the scale needed for mass production. Furthermore, the continuous production of the electrolyte film is challenging.

So far, SVOLT claims to have filed 109 patents in the field of solid-state sulfur batteries.

High Energy Density Batteries Developing By Rimac

Rimac is working on a new battery module that will use 46mm diameter cylindrical cells, in order to increase the energy density of its future packs.

Rimac's director of research and advanced engineering, Wasim Sarwar Dilov, revealed that the Croatian company is working on structural battery packs that would be integrated into the car body. Rimac also wants to improve the efficiency of cell conversion in the package, with the goal that cells represent 75% of the total mass of a package. For comparison, the cells of the Porsche Taycan represent 63% of the mass of the pack, while the Tesla Model 3 stands at 64%.

The format of battery cells is somewhat familiar due to Tesla introducing 46mm diameter cylindrical cells. However, Tesla cells are 80mm high, hence the 4680 format designation , while Dilov states that Rimac cells will have varied heights depending on their application. Tesla plans to start manufacturing its own 4680 format battery cells later this year, while Samsung intends to make the cells in South Korea. Samsung SDI is also taking a more flexible approach to cell manufacturing, offering other formats with the 46mm diameter.

Rimac intends to expand the production of its new components branch to no less than 40,000 battery packs in 2023, and increase to 200,000 by 2028.

"Before we were just trying to find the best cells we could. If it's about getting cells for a few hundred cars, you can do that ," Wasim Sarwar Dilov said, adding: "Now that we are significantly increase the  volumes of hundreds of thousands of units.

Rimac has recently started production of its Nevera electric hypercar, as well as going through quite a turbulent time with investors, as Hyundai backed out of their partnership due to the Croatian electric car maker working with Porsche. This ended with an increase in investment by Porsche in June.

Along with Mercedes in Germany Battery recycling project takes off..

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) is funding the development of a holistic approach to recycling lithium-ion batteries with €16.66 million. As part of the LiBinfinity project, a pilot recycling plant is being built at the Mercedes-Benz facility in Kuppenheim to enable efficient recycling management of battery materials.

The funding will be consumed by Licular GmbH. Licular GmbH is a joint venture of Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Daimler Truck Holding AG - the parts of the former Daimler AG, which now operate independently, had announced the founding of  Licular in the report on the spin-off and separation. In addition to Licular's  participation, Mercedes-Benz and Daimler Truck also have a direct stake in LiBinfinity , while the project partner are included Primobius, the SMS Group as KIT, TU Clausthal, and TU Berlin.

Within the framework of the project, a mechanical-hydrometallurgical process will be developed, which, according to the BMWK announcement, completely dispenses with energy-intensive process steps.. In the process, the battery is disassembled and pre-sorted: aluminum, like the battery casing, can be directly reprocessed. Materials that cannot be easily separated mechanically are broken back into the original materials with the help of water and chemicals. This applies, for example, to cathodes and anodes, where not only the active materials have to be separated from the carrier foils, but also valuable raw materials such as lithium, nickel, cobalt or carbon have to be reprocessed. manganese depending on the type. Much higher recycling rates can be achieved with the hydrometallurgical process than with the pyrometallurgical process, ie the energy-intensive meltdown of the cell.

However, LiBinfinity intends to go beyond the mere reprocessing of the material. A fully comprehensive approach is being developed, from the development of logistics concepts to the reintegration of recycling into the battery lifecycle .

With the ministry's announcement, other key facts about the Kuppenheim pilot plant are now known: it will have an annual capacity of 2,500 tons . Until now, Mercedes had only confirmed rumors that it was planning a pilot recycling plant in Kuppenheim, but had not given any details about the scope. It remains to be seen whether the subsequent larger-scale recycling factory will also be built in Kuppenheim. According to previous information, it will be built in another place for reasons of space.

The project partners want to use recycling not only to increase the sustainability of the batteries, but also to prepare for future goals. According to the BMWK, the targets proposed by the European Commission under the EU battery regulation (which is still being voted on in the European trilogue procedure) "will lead to large investments in new recycling capacities and technologies" . From 2031, for example, recycling fees will apply to large traction and industrial batteries. This means that a certain minimum amount of recycled cobalt, lithium and nickel must be used in new lithium-ion battery production .

"In the form of battery production, are made closed cycle of raw material is our goal , and the traction battery reused in  cars after the first battery used  and recycle the end of  the product as well to used properly . This increases the ecological benefits of electromobility, reduces European dependence of raw materials and takes into account social concerns in the value chain" , says Michael Kellner, Parliamentary Secretary of State for the BMWK. "To achieve the capability of estabilishing recycling  and recovering  raw material by developing innovative process from lithium-ion batteries are critical and we are promoting the given projects."

Electric Car Batteries

Here you know all about electric car batteries

The transition towards sustainable mobility and the electrification of transport is one of the keys to tackling climate change and safeguarding the planet. In the medium term, electric cars will replace combustion cars and for this to happen, the research and development of electric batteries - the soul of these vehicles - that are more durable, efficient and respectful of the environment is essential.

According to a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) published in 2018, the carbon footprint of transport as a whole accounts for around 30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Regulations on transport emissions are becoming more and more stringent around the world – the European Union (EU) has committed to reducing emissions by 60% compared to 1990 levels by 2050 – and the transition towards sustainable mobility and electrification of transport is increasingly urgent.

RISE AND ADVANTAGES OF THE ELECTRIC CAR

Electric cars do not emit polluting gases and are adapted to the approaching decarbonised future . And this is reflected in the gradual increase in its sales:  in 2019, 2.2 million electric cars were sold in the world, 10% more than in 2018 —which means that one in every 40 cars sold was plug-in— . Of these, 74% were pure electric cars (BEVs) and the remaining 26% plug-in hybrids (PHEVs).

That the electric vehicle is the future of transport is something that no one disputes. The only doubts that experts are raising today are, mainly, two: when will they outsell combustion cars and what type of batteries will provide greater performance. According to the latest annual report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) on electric vehicles, sales are expected to continue to grow over the next decade. In fact, the price of electric vehicles is increasingly competitive: according to Bloomberg, in 2022 electric cars will already be cheaper than gasoline equivalents.

A major factor in the electric automotive revolution has been the significant drop in the price of lithium-ion batteries, which are the ones that have dominated the market in recent years. According to BNEF,  the price of this type of battery has gone from 1,100 dollars per kilowatt hour (kWh) in 2010 to 156 dollars in 2019 (-87%) and is expected to drop below 100 dollars in 2024.

In addition to respecting the environment, the electric car has other advantages over the combustion car that make it increasingly attractive in the eyes of buyers:

Fewer breakdowns

By dispensing with the traditional engine and the gear change with a clutch, breakdowns of this nature are reduced to a minimum.

Less maintenance

By having a simpler mechanics than traditional vehicles, its maintenance is also easier.

Less consumption

Charging it in a garage at night, its consumption ranges between 0.50-1 euro per 100 kilometers (km), much less than that of a combustion vehicle.

Fewer restrictions

Due to pollution, there are more and more restrictions on movement in the center of cities. However, these do not affect the electric ones, which can circulate freely.

Fiscal benefits

In many countries, electric cars have tax advantages over combustion cars, such as being exempt from registration taxes, circulation, etc.

WHAT IS AN ELECTRIC CAR BATTERY AND HOW IT WORKS

The battery of an electric car is an energy accumulator in which the electricity that will be transmitted to the alternating or direct current motor is stored. However, it is much more than that: it is the element that gives it its sustainable entity, by making it independent of fossil fuels, and the core on which buyers' concerns depend: its autonomy —the distance it can travel without needing to be charged— , its loading time and its price.

In the last decade, batteries have undergone an unprecedented revolution. As a consequence, the average autonomy of electric cars has increased considerably, thus putting an end to the so-called range anxiety —the fear of buyers of being stranded on the road due to the limited autonomy— that until now hampered their sales. But autonomy is not the only dimension of batteries in which progress has been made: their charging time has also been reduced —with fast charges that are already under 10 minutes— and their efficiency and life cycle have increased.

CHARACTERISTICS OF BATTERIES FOR ELECTRIC CARS

Electric car batteries have a number of peculiarities. Next, we review the main ones:

Density

The amount of energy that a battery is capable of storing in relation to its weight. The higher the density, the greater the storage capacity and the greater the autonomy of the vehicle. It is show here Wh/kg (watt-hours per kilogram).

Power

The power that each kilo of battery weight can provide and, as such, is expressed in W/kg (watts per kilogram). The higher the power, the higher the performance of the vehicle.

Efficiency

The performance of the battery, that is, the percentage of energy that it is capable of delivering in relation to the energy introduced in the charging process.

Lifecycle

The number of times a battery can be discharged and recharged before being replaced, as they lose capacity. The more cycles a battery has, the longer it will last.

Upload Speed

Its take a time to charge the battery. There are three types of charging, with times that vary depending on the car model: fast (10-40 minutes), semi-fast (1.5-3 hours) and slow (5-8 hours).

HOW TO EXTEND THE USEFUL LIFE OF ELECTRIC          CAR BATTERIES

According to a study carried out by Geotab in 2019, electric cars lose an average of 2.3% autonomy per year. These are the main tips to take care of the electric battery of a vehicle:

• Avoid full battery charges and discharges, just like mobile phones and laptops.
• Charge the car using smart chargers and, if possible, in trickle charging sockets – fast charges shorten battery life by 1% if used frequently.
• Use the electric car, preferably, in an urban environment, accelerate gently and do not park in the sun to prevent the thermal management system from working.
• The car's retention system helps charge the battery, so the more you use it to brake, the more range you'll have.