BATTERY BREAKTHROUGH ENABLES ‘HOLY GRAIL’ OF SUPERFAST-CHARGING ELECTRIC CARS

Engineers say they are close to achieving the “holy grail” of batteries after a major breakthrough brought forward the possibility of charging electric vehicles in mere minutes.

The advance could provide electric cars with 500km of range from just 10 minutes of charging, researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) said.

“The combination of high energy, high [charging] rate, and long cycle life is the holy grail of battery research, which is determined by one of the key components of the battery: the electrode materials,” said USTC professor Hengxing Ji.

Full article Independent – 9 October 2020

InoBat unveils world’s first “intelligent” EV battery

Slovakia’s InoBat Auto has unveiled what it claims is the world’s first “intelligent” electric vehicle battery, said to beat competitors’ with a higher energy density and an increase in operational range of 20%.

The company’s Gen1 lithium battery, ready after just a year of research and development, combines Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High Throughput (HTP) technology. It also contains less cobalt than batteries currently available in the market, InoBat’s co-founder and CEO, Marian Bocek, said in a statement.

The company, backed by a consortium of investors and technology companies, will begin producing the battery next year at its AI-driven battery research centre and production line in Voderady, Slovakia.

Full article in Mining.com – 9 October 2020

Tesla to make EV battery cathodes without cobalt

Tesla will make electric vehicle batteries with cobalt-free cathodes, it announced during its Battery Day event today. The announcement came as part of the company’s move to make batteries in-house instead of purchasing them. Musk didn’t give a timeline for going to a zero-cobalt battery.

Cobalt is the most expensive material used in batteries, so eliminating it from the mix was expected help to electric vehicles become as affordable as those that run on gas. Tesla now says it can make a $25,000 electric vehicle — $10,000 less than its cheapest model — because of the improvements it’s made to its batteries, including axing cobalt.

See The Verge – 22 September 2020

Tesla unveils battery puzzle pieces of smart material science, design, and manufacturing innovation

Tesla explained how they have made major improvements in five key aspects of batteries:

  • Cell design, specifically form factor.
  • Battery cell factory design with manufacturing innovations
  • New anode materials
  • New cathode materials
  • New battery pack design

And then, by combining all these things together, Tesla achieves a battery cost breakthrough with a 56% reduction in cost per kWh.

At the cell level, Tesla did something quite simple: make the cell bigger.

However, when you make a cylindrical cell bigger, you run into thermal problems, but Tesla managed to address those by designing a tabless cell with much less resistance.

See Electrek – 23 Sepember 2020

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