Search Results Found For: "Lithium Iron Phosphate"

A closer look at graphite—its forms, functions and future in EV batteries

Q&A with Graphex CEO John DeMaio Reading the EV press, you might assume that lithium, cobalt and nickel are the stars of the battery show—they get a lot of coverage, as pundits debate the relative merits of NMC and LFP cathode chemistries and agonize over looming shortages. Meanwhile, over in the anode, there’s an unsung… Read more »

The EV raw materials crunch: How bad, how long, how to solve it?

This article originally appeared in Issue 60: April-June 2022 Subscribe now Every new technology must overcome a series of temporary constraints on its way to widespread adoption. Since modern EVs appeared a decade ago, they’ve motored past many of these bottlenecks, (or hurdles, or roadblocks—pick your preferred metaphor). Range has increased, access to charging infrastructure has expanded,… Read more »

ONE’s hybrid battery pack combines the best aspects of two chemistries to deliver 600 miles of EV range

Q&A with ONE CTO Dr. Steven Kaye. There is a wide range of characteristics that describe the performance of any given battery chemistry: energy density, specific energy, specific power, discharge efficiency, self-discharge rate, cycle life, calendar life, and—not the least important—cost.  Some types of Li-ion chemistries are really good in a few characteristics but fall… Read more »

Rivian working on 800-volt architecture, bidirectional charging, in-house drive units and battery cells

EV startup Rivian’s Q4 2021 Shareholder Letter is reminiscent of the ones we used to see from a certain other Californian EV startup in its idealistic younger days—full of forward-looking technical innovations. Rivian appears to embracing several current trends on the EV scene—going bidirectional and moving towards 800 volts, LFP cells and more in-house production… Read more »

Our Next Energy tests 750-mile battery pack in a Tesla Model S

A two-year-old Michigan startup, Our Next Energy (ONE), has built a custom battery pack that recently propelled a modified Tesla Model S for 752 miles. John Voelcker, writing in Car and Driver, reports that ONE retrofitted the car with a pack that stores twice the energy of Tesla’s original, and fits in exactly the same… Read more »

Paraclete Energy says its low-cost silicon nanoparticles can at least double your current anode capacity

Silicon has a theoretical charge capacity ten times higher than typical graphite. That is why a mind-blowing number of researchers are working towards replacing more and more of the graphite used in today’s lithium-ion battery anodes with silicon. In the last issue of Charged, we discussed Tesla’s announcement that it had begun to use small… Read more »

French chemical giant and utility join to create energy storage R&D lab

Arkema, a global chemical company, and SCE France, a subsidiary of Canadian electricity producer Hydro-Québec, plan to create a joint laboratory that will focus on developing a new generation of materials for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries, in particular new electrolytes (solvents, lithium salts) and conduction agents (carbon nanotubes, conductive polymers). Arkema’s Kynar polyvinylidene fluoride… Read more »

Mercedes reveals details of S 500 Plug-in Hybrid as deliveries begin

Mercedes has released some more details on its S 500 Plug-in Hybrid, which is scheduled to begin deliveries in Germany this month. The plug-in Benz sports a V6 biturbo engine, an 85 kW electric motor, an 8.7 kWh water-cooled lithium-iron phosphate battery, and a 3.6 kW on-board charger. The high-voltage battery and plug-in components are covered… Read more »

A closer look at how batteries fail

A lot of research has been done to improve lithium-ion battery safety, cycle life and power output over a range of high and low temperatures, yet understanding the fundamental processes and degradation mechanisms in Li-ion batteries remains a challenge. To understand the degradation processes of lithium-ion batteries, it is important to understand how they operate…. Read more »