Search Results Found For: "solid-state"

Is Toyota changing its tune? 10 new EVs in the pipeline

Toyota, the world’s second-largest automaker, and one of the largest electrification skeptics (its execs have made statements disparaging battery EVs, and its Lexus subsidiary has run ads mocking EVs), now says it plans to launch 10 new pure EVs by “the early 2020s,” and to add electrified variants to its entire lineup by 2025. “As a mass-market… Read more »

alpha-En wins grant to commercialize lithium metal anodes

New York-based alpha-En has won an award of $750,000 from the DOE’s Office of Technology Transition Technology Commercialization Fund. The funding will be used to commercialize Argonne National Laboratory’s proprietary highly conductive solid-state electrolyte coating for alpha-En’s lithium metal anodes. alpha-En says its lithium metal is purer than what is currently available on the market,… Read more »

Dyson to build “radically different” EV

When British inventor Sir James Dyson’s eponymous company acquired Michigan solid-state battery pioneer Sakti3 in 2015, we suspected it wasn’t about better batteries for handheld vacuum cleaners. Now Dyson has announced that it has had 400 engineers working since 2015 on an EV that will be “radically different” from current models and go on sale… Read more »

DOE awards $6 million to first crop of Battery500 Seedlings

The Battery500 consortium, led by the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), intends to build a battery pack with a specific energy of 500 Wh/kg, which would more than double the 170-200 Wh/kg per kilogram in today’s typical EV battery. Part of the initiative is the “Seedling” program, which identifies new and risky battery research… Read more »

DOE awarding $19 million to 22 advanced vehicle technologies projects

The DOE is awarding $19.4 million to 22 new cost-shared research projects in the fields of advanced batteries, lightweight materials, emission control, and energy-efficient mobility systems. Fifteen of these are Phase 1 Battery Seedling projects, aimed at battery materials and approaches that complement the Battery500 Consortium’s research. Promising Phase 1 awardees will be competitively weeded… Read more »

Qualcomm invests in safe battery tech from Amionx

Qualcomm has made a strategic investment in Amionx, a specialist in safe battery technology. Qualcomm President Derek Aberle will join the Amionx board of directors. Amionx has patented a technology called Safe Core that acts like a circuit breaker to prevent Li-ion batteries from triggering a fire or explosion. Safe Core is designed to protect… Read more »

Saft team develops first metal hydride-sulfur battery

Researchers at French battery-maker Saft and Université Paris Est have, for the first time, used a nanocomposite metal hydride as the anode in a complete solid-state battery with a sulfur cathode and LiBH4 electrolyte. In “An all-solid-state metal hydride-Sulfur lithium-ion battery,” published in the Journal of Power Sources, Pedro López-Aranguren and colleagues explain that their… Read more »

Mkango is developing new rare earth alloys for 3D-printed magnets

Canada-based Mkango Resources has teamed with UK-based Metalysis to develop and commercialize novel rare earth metal alloys for use in 3D-printed permanent magnets. The two companies envisage a comprehensive R&D program, taking advantage of Mkango’s knowledge about the performance characteristics and demand outlook for rare earth magnets and Metalysis’s solid-state process, which it says can… Read more »

MIT researchers investigate mechanics of sulfide-based solid electrolyte material

IMAGE: Using specialized equipment, a team from MIT  did tests in which they used a pyramidal-tipped probe to indent the surface of a piece of the sulfide-based material. Surrounding the resulting indentation (seen at center), cracks were seen forming in the material (indicated by arrows), revealing details of its mechanical properties. Battery scientists are the world are exploring… Read more »

Bolloré launches BlueLA electric car sharing service in Los Angeles

The Bolloré Group, which operates all-electric car sharing services in Indianapolis and several European cities, plans to expand to Los Angeles. The new BlueLA service is scheduled to open in 2017. It will start off with 200 public charging points and 100 EVs. No details are on offer at this time, so we don’t know… Read more »