Mass production of first solid-state EV battery

 From The Electric Viking

Solid-state batteries have no liquid electrolyte.   They have a much greater energy density than conventional lithium-ion batteries, and even greater than sodium-ion.  This particular battery has a lower energy density than other solid-state batteries which are still in developmental mode.  But the company developing these batteries (Chery) expects to double their energy density by 2027.  They can also be charged 6 times faster than conventional batteries (fully charged in 5 minutes), and will likely end up being much cheaper too.

The energy density of these batteries will be high enough to power heavy duty "diesel" trucks.

The commercialisation of solid-state batteries appeared to be half a decade away, or more.  And here they are.  

Step by step, we move closer to the point where ICE vehicles will just be unsellable, and all cars will be EVs.

Sulphur-selenium solid state battery

There is a ferment of new and advancing technology in batteries. Some will go on to be commercially successful; others will not.



From CleanTechnica

Most of us have little idea what NASA — the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — has been doing since the Apollo moon missions ended. We know it is responsible for Tang and space blankets, but what has it done for us lately?

It turns out, the “aeronautics” part of its mission includes advances in airplanes, and that means finding alternatives to conventional fuels that will leave fewer emissions behind during flight. As any EV advocate knows, vehicles powered by batteries and electricity are far more efficient than conventional cars powered by last century internal combustion technology. But batteries are heavy and bulky — two words that aeronautical engineers never want to hear.

But what if batteries had two or three times more power than today’s best lithium-ion batteries? And what if they also had no liquid or semi-liquid electrolyte inside that could burst into flames? “Fire” and “airplane” are two words that should never be used in the same sentence.

The promise of battery-powered flight is very much on the minds of airline executives who are under pressure to slash emissions from their flights. It also fires the imagination of those who want to bring air taxis into commercial use. The latest news from NASA should be of interest to both groups.

For years, NASA has been researching battery-powered flight as part of its Solid-state Architecture Batteries for Enhanced Rechargeability and Safety program. “SABERS continues to exceed its goals,” said Rocco Viggiano, principal investigator for SABERS at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland in a press release last year. “We’re starting to approach this new frontier of battery research that could do so much more than lithium-ion batteries can. The possibilities are pretty incredible.”

Viggiano says a battery is like a bucket that stores energy. More energy storage is like having a larger bucket. NASA says its sulfur selenium prototype battery has an energy density of 500 watt-hours per kilogram, which is about double that of conventional lithium-ion batteries.

But aircraft need enormous amounts of power to get off the ground. Until recently, lithium-ion batteries were able to discharge their stored power much more quickly than solid-state batteries could. Now the SABERS researchers, with help from partners at Georgia Tech, have found a way to make their solid-state batteries discharge ten times faster than when the research started. Then they achieved another five-fold increase after that. So now they have a larger bucket that can be emptied rapidly when needed.

That bucket is also up to 40% lighter because of more innovations discovered by the SABERS team. Their sulfur selenium battery cells can be stacked one on top of the other with no casing around them. Eliminating the casing around individual cells means more energy storage within a given amount of space — a huge advantage when trying to fit batteries into the structure of an aircraft. It also means the cooling systems for the cells can be smaller and lighter.

There are other advantages as well. The massive amounts of energy needed at the beginning of any flight can cause temperatures inside battery cells to spike. The solid-state sulfur selenium batteries from NASA are able to withstand temperatures twice as hot as conventional lithium-ion batteries. In addition, they are less affected by changes in pressure, which occur rapidly after takeoff and while landing. So far, it’s all good news for electric flight advocates.

Are there any drawbacks? Cost is a big factor. And the testing protocols before new components get approved for use in commercial aircraft are far more rigorous than they are for ordinary vehicles.

Solid state battery approved by Tesla co-founder

From CleanTechnica

Mercedes-Benz is piling on to the solid-state electric car battery stampede with a bang. The company has just inked a deal with the advanced energy storage firm ProLogium Technology, which cites Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard among the fans of its new ceramic-based solid-state energy storage platform for electric cars.

For those of you keeping score at home, Martin Eberhard co-founded Tesla with Marc Tarpenning in 2003, after reportedly having been inspired to fill in the electric mobility gap left when GM pulled the ill-fated EV1 off the market. Elon Musk got the company rolling in 2004 as an investor, and the rest is automotive history.

EV batteries certainly have come a long way since 2003. Our friends over at Car and Driver remind us that the original EV1 sported 26 lead-acid batteries for propulsion, good for just 55 miles of range a far cry from today’s lithium-ion technology.

The driving public had to wait a few years before lithium-ion electric car batteries entered the scene. Mitsubishi is credited with getting the first highway-legal, mass-produced EV with a lithium-ion battery pack off the ground in 2009 under the name i-MiEV, though some auto industry observers credit Tesla with delivering the first Tesla Roadster in 2008.

Tesla Motors previewed the Roadster Li-ion battery pack in 2006. A Tesla document on file at Stanford University describes it as “one of the largest and technically most advanced Li-ion battery packs in the world.”

“It is capable of delivering enough power to accelerate the Tesla Roadster from 0 to 60 mph in about 4 seconds,” the authors noted. “Meanwhile, the battery stores enough energy for the vehicle to travel more than 200 miles (based on EPA city/highway cycle) without recharging, something no production electric vehicle in history can claim.”

Be that as it may, the first iteration of the Roadster was expensive, and production maxed out at approximately 2,500 units in 2012. That’s somewhat ironic, considering that GM was roundly criticized for pulling EV1 after reaching a similar point in a similar timeframe, topping out at approximately 1,000 units. The i-MiEV fared much better than both cars, though it still only managed a little over 31,000 units in 10 years.

Lithium-ion EV battery technology has improved exponentially since those first two Li-ion EVs, but the technology still relies on a liquid electrolyte. Various attempts to replace it with a solid electrolyte have surfaced in recent years, in an attempt to improve battery range while cutting costs, streamlining the supply chain and reducing lifecycle impacts.

In 2017 the US Department of Energy noted that a solid-state EV battery could be forthcoming within the next few years, and it looks like its energy storage forecast has come true. All the leading automakers are piling on, even though the technology is not quite ready for its closeup.

The solid-state EV battery of the future is coming close, though. That brings us to ProLogium Technology, a Taiwanese firm founded and helmed by Vincent Yang, who launched the company 15 years ago with the vision of inventing a better battery. ProLogium bills itself as “a global leader in high-performing, safe, and cost-effective battery technologies in EV, consumer, and industrial applications” and the first to “successfully develop, mass produce, and commercialize the solid-state lithium ceramic battery.”

The company already has a pile of commercial accounts under its belt and a major scale-up is in the works (more on that in a sec).

And yes, ProlLogium has also enlisted Martin Eberhart’s opinion on its ceramic battery. In press release last April, the company cited this observation from the Tesla co-founder (and original CEO, for the record):

“ProLogium’s solid-state electrolyte battery technology is the most exciting new development I have seen in this field. The combination of safety, aging characteristics, fast charge rate, and bipolar packaging, all without sacrifice energy density, and at a competitive price, make ProLogium cells the best I have seen for automotive applications.”

Things have moved along at a quick pace since then. Last October, ProLogium announced the completion of a $326 million round of financing, which will be deployed to develop and expand Prologium factories in Asia, Europe, and the US in the coming years.

That brings us to the new Mercedes-Benz deal. A hint regarding the automaker’s interest in a solid-state EV battery surfaced last year, when Stellantis and Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler put their money on the solid-state battery firm Factorial.

The ProLogium deal was announced on January 27, which set the wheels in motion for Mercedes-Benz, though it will be some time before Mercedes-Benz customers get their hands on the new technology. The automaker expects to receive its ProLogium solid-state EV battery for test vehicles over the next several years, with full integration across a number of models expected after 2025.

As for the benefits of a solid-state EV battery over its liquid-electrolyte cousin, Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, Chief Technology Officer responsible for Development and Procurement, noted that solid-state technology helps to reduce the size of the battery, which would provide high-end automakers with more design flexibility.

“This is why we are partnering with companies like ProLogium to ensure that Mercedes-Benz continues to break new ground in the automotive sector – for the benefit of our customers,” Schäfer said.

Automakers are scrambling to clean up their supply chains in order to satisfy the demands of car buyers and investors who want to drive around without killing the planet, so it’s no surprise the ProLogium emphasizes ease of recycling and reusing, as well as sustainable and ethical sourcing, for its solid-state EV battery.

Mercedes-Benz is among those scrambling to carve out a sustainability space for automotive technology in the sparkling green future. In a press release dated January 27, Mercedes-Benz touted an environmental validation audit for its oversized EQS 450+ electric car, and detailed its efforts to build recyclability and ethical sourcing into its liquid electrolyte EV battery. The company should find the going a little smoother once it transitions into the solid-state EV battery field.

For the record, Mercedes-Benz is not ProLogium’s first automaker. The Vietnamese automaker Vinfast, which first popped up on the CleanTechnica radar back in 2020, zeroed in on ProLogium for its EV batteries last year, so stay tuned for more on that.

 

Solid state batteries

 A very interesting (as ever) and informative video from Just Have A Think, this time about solid-state batteries.  

Solid-state batteries will charge 6 times faster, will have 3 times the energy density, will weigh less and be safer than standard lithium-ion batteries which have a liquid electrolyte.  The only problem is that producing large solid-state batteries has proved difficult.  But it looks as if, finally, large solid-state batteries might become available, with Marata and Toyota both starting mass production of these batteries later this year.