While smartphones, smart homes, and even smart wearables are becoming increasingly sophisticated, they are still limited by power. The battery has not progressed in decades. However, we are on the precipice of a power shift.
The limits of lithium-ion batteries are well known to large technology and automobile industries. While CPUs and operating systems are becoming more efficient at conserving power, we still only get a day or two out of a smartphone before it needs to be recharged.
While it may be some time before we receive a week’s worth of battery life from our phones, progress is being made. Here is a list of the top battery discoveries that could be available soon in EV.
Structural Batteries Could Pave the Way for Ultralight Electric Vehicles
For many years, researchers at the Chalmers University of Technology have been investigating the use of batteries not only for power but also as structural components. The benefit of this is that a product can have fewer structural components because the battery has the strength to fulfill those jobs. The latest battery, which uses lithium iron phosphate as the positive electrode and carbon fiber as the negative electrode, has a stiffness of 25GPa, albeit there is still more work to be done to boost the energy capacity.
Carbon Nanotube Electrode That Is Vertically Aligned
NAWA Technologies has created and patented an Ultra-Fast Carbon Electrode, which it claims will revolutionize the battery business. It employs a vertically aligned carbon nanotube (VACNT) design, and NAWA claims it can enhance battery power tenfold, energy storage by a factor of three, and battery lifespan by five times. Electric vehicles, according to the business, will benefit the most because they will lower the carbon footprint and cost of battery production while enhancing performance. According to NAWA, a 1000km range might become the norm, with charging times reduced to 5 minutes to achieve an 80 percent charge. The technology might be in use as early as 2023.
SVOLT Introduces Cobalt-Free EV Batteries
While the emission-reducing features of electric vehicles are universally acknowledged, there is still debate about the batteries, namely the use of metals such as cobalt. SVOLT, based in Changzhou, China, has announced the production of cobalt-free batteries for the EV industry. Aside from lowering the rare earth metals, the company claims that they have a higher energy density, which might result in electric car ranges of up to 800km (500 miles), while also extending battery life and enhancing safety. We don’t know where these batteries will be seen, but the company has verified that it is working with a prominent European manufacturer.
Another Step Toward Silicon Anode Lithium-Ion Batteries
To address the issue of unstable silicon in lithium-ion batteries, researchers at the University of Eastern Finland created a hybrid anode utilizing mesoporous silicon microparticles and carbon nanotubes. The ultimate goal is to replace graphite as the anode in batteries with silicon, which has 10 times the capacity. The use of this hybrid material improves battery performance, while the silicon material is manufactured sustainably from barley husk ash.
IBM’s Battery Is Made From Seawater and Outperforms Lithium-Ion Batteries
IBM Research has found novel battery chemistry that is free of heavy metals like nickel and cobalt and has the potential to outperform lithium-ion. According to IBM Research, this chemistry has never been employed in a battery before, and the ingredients can be harvested from seawater.
The battery’s performance is promising, with IBM Research claiming that it can outperform lithium-ion in a variety of ways, including lower manufacturing costs, faster charging, and higher power and energy densities. All of this is available in a battery with low electrolyte flammability.
According to IBM Research, these benefits will make its new battery technology ideal for electric vehicles, and it is collaborating with Mercedes-Benz and others to develop this technology into a viable commercial battery.
Battery Management System From Panasonic
While lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous and expanding in use, managing them, especially recognizing when they have reached the end of their useful life, is difficult. Panasonic has developed a new battery management technique in collaboration with Professor Masahiro Fukui of Ritsumeikan University that will make it much easier to monitor batteries and identify the residual value of lithium-ion in them.
Panasonic claims that their new technology can be readily implemented with a tweak to the battery management system, making it easier to monitor and analyze batteries with many stacked cells, such as those seen in electric vehicles. Panasonic claims that this method will aid in the drive toward sustainability by better managing the reuse and recycling of lithium-ion batteries.
Graphene Batteries From Grabat
Graphene batteries have the potential to be among the best available. Grabat has created graphene batteries that might provide electric vehicles with a driving range of up to 500 kilometers on a single charge.
The batteries, according to Graphenano, can be charged to full capacity in only a few minutes and charge and discharge 33 times faster than lithium-ion batteries. Discharge is especially important for items like autos, which need a lot of force to drive away quickly.
There’s no news on whether Grabat batteries are being used in any devices, although the company does provide batteries for vehicles, drones, motorcycles, and even the home.
The Aluminum-Air Battery Has a Range of 1,100 Miles on a Single Charge
An automobile can be driven 1,100 kilometers on a single charge of its battery. The secret to this incredible range is a battery technology known as aluminum-air, which takes oxygen from the air to feed its cathode. This makes it significantly lighter than liquid-filled lithium-ion batteries, allowing the car to travel farther.
For decades, battery researchers have been attempting to crack the code for a new battery that can surpass lithium-ion batteries – the technology that has catapulted the electric vehicle industry to where it is now.
Global automakers predict that these new EV Battery technologies will lead to electric vehicles with substantially longer ranges, that can be made at a lower cost, are safer to drive, have longer lifespans, and support faster charging.
