Emerging EV battery technologies

[SuperMatt]

Here’s an interesting article about companies working on new EV battery tech.

From ceramics to using silicon instead of graphite to store energy, we might be looking at cars that can recharge fully in 10 minutes in the future.

Advanced E.V. Batteries Move From Labs to Mass Production (Published 2022)

Makers of batteries that could charge in a few minutes are setting up assembly lines, bringing the technology a big step closer to auto showrooms.

www.nytimes.com

(paywall removed)

 

[DT]

I just saw an article that said even using the same chemistry, other changes will have 20% improvements in the very near future (and generally they mean power density, so trivial changes to weight and no changes to packaging).

Thanks for the de-paywalled article (I print those out to PDF, into a my iCloud and read them in the evenings on the iPad )

 

[Eric]

Here’s an interesting article about companies working on new EV battery tech.

From ceramics to using silicon instead of graphite to store energy, we might be looking at cars that can recharge fully in 10 minutes in the future.

Advanced E.V. Batteries Move From Labs to Mass Production (Published 2022)

Makers of batteries that could charge in a few minutes are setting up assembly lines, bringing the technology a big step closer to auto showrooms.

www.nytimes.com

(paywall removed)

Yeah, this is definitely the future. I know that even now with preconditioning on my Tesla I can probably easily get over 100 miles in 10 minutes at a supercharging station, not that different from getting gas when you consider there are no lines or wait times.

 

[DT]

Charging speed vs. capacity is an interesting conversation too.

i.e., would you rather have an EV that goes xxx miles on a charge or one that does yyy miles but can charge those back in 5< minutes (where yyy < xxx by some Z )

 

[Yoused]

One simple way to improve range: design the car body and battery together. This is a long way from being a new idea, and it is being worked on as we speak.

A car body weighs a lot. A battery pack weighs a lot. Combining the two into the same component would reduce the weight of the vehicle enough that the batteries would almost come for free. Ideally, manufacturers would come up with a modular design so that battery replacement might even be an option.

 

[Citysnaps]

Curious to see how Lithium Sulfur battery chemistry pans out. It appears to have interesting benefits over conventional Lithium batteries - greater energy density, better safety (no catastrophic failure), no nickel/cobalt (lower cost), lighter weight, faster charging.

 

[theorist9]

One simple way to improve range: design the car body and battery together. This is a long way from being a new idea, and it is being worked on as we speak.

A car body weighs a lot. A battery pack weighs a lot. Combining the two into the same component would reduce the weight of the vehicle enough that the batteries would almost come for free. Ideally, manufacturers would come up with a modular design so that battery replacement might even be an option.

Here's a more recent article about structural battery packs which says that's been implemented to some extent in the Tesla Model Y and the GM Hummer EV:

Structural Batteries: The Cars of the Future Are Glued

Structural batteries are changing the way electric cars are assembled. Structural adhesives are replacing screws and welds to “glue” components together using a process called adhesive bonding. This process requires additional surface preparation and creates new challenges for automakers and...

www.laserax.com

 

[Apple fanboy]

One simple way to improve range: design the car body and battery together. This is a long way from being a new idea, and it is being worked on as we speak.

A car body weighs a lot. A battery pack weighs a lot. Combining the two into the same component would reduce the weight of the vehicle enough that the batteries would almost come for free. Ideally, manufacturers would come up with a modular design so that battery replacement might even be an option.

One of the reasons I like my i3. It doesn’t weigh much at all. The steel has been replaced by carbon fibre, aluminium and plastic.