Tag Archives: EV batteries

About Battery Timing

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At some point will it be analogous to buying Duracell, Eveready or Kirkland. . . ?

By Gary S. Vasilash

Compared with GM and Ford, the other company in the “Detroit 3,” Stellantis North America, which is still simply referred to as “Chrysler” in southeastern Michigan, is behind the curve when it comes to electric vehicles.

You can buy or lease an EV from GM or Ford.

But so far, with the exception of the exceptionally limited Fiat 500e (limited as in having a range of 149 miles, which is about half of what many people are interested in when thinking about an EV), there is no mainstream EV available from Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, or Alfa Romeo.

But earlier this week it announced that NextStar Energy, a joint venture between Stellantis and LG Energy Solution, has started battery module production in its plant in Windsor, Ontario. Next year it plans to launch cell manufacturing.

The Dodge Charger, electric version. (Image: Dodge)

And the company also announced that it will be operating a demo fleet of Dodge Charger Daytona EVs with solid-state batteries from Factorial, a battery company that it has invested $75-million in.

What is interesting about the Factorial battery is that the company claims they’re working for a range of 600+ miles from a battery that is 33% smaller and 40% lighter than a conventional lithium-ion battery.

However, that fleet won’t go into operation until 2026.

So presumably if all goes well, it would still take some time before the Factorial tech makes its way into production vehicles, which explains why there is the production at NextStar Energy: they’re going to need something sooner rather than later.

Factorial is also working with Mercede-Benz. The two companies announced last month the development of a new solid-state battery technology, about which Markus Schäfer, Chief Technology Officer and Member of the Board of Management at Mercedes-Benz Group AG, said: “The Solstice solid-state battery technology represents another landmark milestone in our partnership with Factorial, which is a cornerstone of Mercedes-Benz’s strategy and commitment to leading the charge in battery development. Solstice offers further improvements in energy density and safety features that will help us develop electric vehicles that set new standards in range, cost, and performance.”

Note the future tense of “will.” Not now. But sometime.

In the meantime Mercedes gets batteries from companies including LG Energy Solution and CATL.

Mercedes, like Stellantis, has had a joint-development arrangement with Factorial since 2021.

So at some point in the future will the situation be that multiple OEMs will have access to the same battery technology and so there will be differentiators required other than charging time and range?

Something to Know About Na-ion Batteries

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While the attention to developments in the arena of high-voltage batteries that can power vehicles is considerable and understandable, turns out that low-voltage batteries—along the lines of the batteries under the hoods of ICE vehicles—shouldn’t be overlooked.

According to Clarios, a Wisconsin-based producer of batteries and battery systems, the low-voltage network in EVs and hybrids support such things as steer-by-wire, brake-by-wire, and cabin infotainment, and the number of things being supported is only expected to grow.

It has signed a Joint Development Agreement with Altris, a Swedish developer and prototype manufacturer of sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries, for these low-voltage applications.

Why is this interesting?

Because according to the companies the Na-ion batteries:

  1. Provide a power density equivalent to LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries
  2. Are environmentally friendly: the materials used to produce Na-ion batteries include salt, wood, iron, and air

Clearly there’s some remarkable chemistry going on in those cells.

The Economic Considerations of Building Better Batteries

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By Gary S. Vasilash

When you consider the on-going development of different battery chemistries (to make batteries that are less expensive or more capable or with fewer rare earths or whatever) and you then take into account the billions of dollars that OEMs have already invested in battery manufacturing equipment, a question arises about the extent to which the existing equipment can be used to produce batteries with a different chemistry than the one for which the factories are setup for.

While an imperfect analogy: Consider a factory that makes compact cars. It is decided that more capacity is needed to produce full-size SUVs. While most of the equipment in the plant can be reused, there is still a non-trivial amount of new robots and suchlike that have to be purchased as well as all manner of new tooling.

If that holds in the case of battery manufacture, than it is, to quote Carl Sagan from another context, “billions and billions.”

Lyten, a firm that describes itself as “a supermaterials application company,” has announced that it has determined that the lithium-sulfur battery that it has developed will allow something of a seamless transition from what is being done in many battery plants today.

Dan Cook, Lyten CEO and co-founder:

“Lyten now has demonstrated that lithium-sulfur can be built in standard cylindrical and pouch formats, can be scaled to automated manufacturing, and can be done on the same equipment and processes already being used around the globe to manufacture legacy lithium-ion.

“The result is a significant reduction in the manufacturing scale up risk for a locally sourced, locally manufactured battery that can leapfrog the performance and cost of existing lithium ion and future solid-state batteries.”

One of the benefits cited by the company for its alternative chemistry is that it contains no nickel, cobalt, manganese, or graphite in the cathode and anode, which means that battery materials can be locally sourced and the battery locally manufactured. (Which can mean $3,750 per vehicle tax credits for the manufacturer for local materials and another $3,750 per vehicle for local battery component manufacturing.)

And there’s that other non-trivial bonus of keeping one’s instaslled base of equipment.