Battery

With the advent of extensive R&D in EV battery technology, new methods are being developed to address safety issues pertaining to EVs. It is becoming a trend for companies to keep devising modern methods leveraging technology to make EV batteries safer. In the last few years, many cases of terrible incidents regarding electric cars have surfaced. Unfortunately, most of these highlight some sort of battery issue as the root cause. With reports suggesting around 100 million EVs on roads worldwide by 2030, it becomes crucial to come up with solutions to make electric car batteries safer. Hence, battery companies are not just focusing on increasing range and reducing charging times, but also making them more resistant to fire and thermal runaway. We know that the latter is the biggest cause of worry. Once an EV battery catches fire, it is excruciatingly difficult to douse it. The reason is the availability of toxic and explosive chemicals in the battery construction itself. Essentially, that is a constant fuel to keep the fire going. As a result, we have had situations where the batteries kept burning for upto 48-72 hours. You might also like: Which is Better EV Battery Cooling System – Liquid or Air? You might also like: Top 5 Tips To Save / Earn Money From EV Charging 3D Thermal Barriers Technology to Make EV Batteries Safer Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, a tech company, has introduced an advanced solution to address a critical concern in the rapidly growing field of electric vehicles (EVs). The company has developed 3D thermal barriers aimed at mitigating the risk of thermal runaway in high-energy-density lithium-ion batteries, which are becoming increasingly common in modern EVs. You might also like: 5 New EV Battery Technologies – Aluminium-ion to Niobium The 3D thermal barriers mark a departure from conventional two-dimensional options like flat mats and thermal blankets. These barriers are custom, flexible, and can fit in various positions within the battery structure, allowing for easy integration of additional components. The novel 3D geometries come from injection moulding and continuous extrusion. This adaptability also offers a noteworthy advantage – the resulting intricate 3D geometries are lightweight and exert minimal impact on the overall battery weight. Freudenberg makes heat-resistant, electrical, and thermal insulating materials. Thorough in-house testing demonstrates that these materials can endure temperatures of up to 1,200°C. This resilience is due to the specific composition of the compounded polymers This renders them impervious to both extreme heat and particle impacts, such as those that occur during cell venting. The 3D thermal barriers use elastomer solutions in solid and foam forms. Additionally, they can also be plastic components like Quantix Ultra® for intricate geometric patterns. You might also like: Top Solid-State Battery Companies For EVs Learn Electric Cars Says There are new EV technologies coming about quite frequently. That is normal with so much research going on about EV batteries in various parts of the world. This may just be one of many potent ways to make EV batteries safer. With time, we expect more such breakthroughs which will have safety at its core. Not to mention, longer range and shorter charging times will still be the main parameters while designing new solutions.

New EV battery technologies are being developed vehemently all across the globe. The traditional and upcoming electric carmakers and traditional battery and tech companies are collaborating to develop future batteries as the electrification wave grips the mobility industry. The need for zero tailpipe pollution-emitting vehicles is a priority as the warnings from the scientific community about environmental degradation are unequivocal. As a result, R&D in battery technology has been underway for almost a decade now. Here are the top 5 relatively viable options that might make it into mass-production before the decade-end (some of these are already being tested in production vehicles starting this year (2023)). You might also like: Top Solid-State Battery Companies For EVs You might also like: Does the Future of EVs Rest on Sodium Ion Batteries? 5 New EV Battery Technologies Sodium-Ion Batteries We have already covered the details of the principle, advantages and disadvantages of Sodium-ion batteries previously. Just for recap, this battery type uses Sodium (instead of Lithium) to carry ions from the cathode to the anode and vice versa enabling the charge and discharge process. Sodium is the 6th most abundant element found in the earth’s crust, is non-inflammable, has a wider temperature range of operation, has low production cost, etc. These are the benefits over the existing Li-ion batteries. However, the issue is their low energy density and almost equal charge-discharge cycle counts compared to the Li-ion batteries. Also, mass production has only just commenced by CATL and BYD. You might also like: Are Chargers at DC Fast Charging Stations Bad For EVs? Solid State Batteries The next crucial and interesting EV technology is called a solid-state battery. As the name reflects, the electrolyte solution that is found between the cathode and anode of an electric car battery (or any other Li-ion battery used in other electronic gadgets) is in solid/gel form. In Li-ion batteries, this is in a liquid state which is what causes fire. But with solid-state technology, this electrolyte is in solid or gel form. Hence, the size and weight of the battery are reduced leading to increased range and faster charging times. However, more research is needed to produce these on a large scale. Lithium Sulfur Batteries Lithium Sulfur (Li-S) batteries use sulfur instead of complex, toxic, fast-diminishing and difficult-to-source elements like Cobalt or Nickel in their construction. This makes the batteries slightly lighter increasing their energy density which could be as high as around 500 Wh/kg compared to around 300 Wh/kg for regular Li-ion batteries. These can have around 1,500 charging cycles. However, the issues with these include polysulfide “shuttle” resulting in leakage of cathode material. You might also like: Tesla Battery (4680) vs BYD Blade Battery – Comparison Aluminium Ion Batteries Another interesting and potentially disruptive EV battery technology is the use of Al-ion. In this construction, Aluminium ions are used as charge carriers between the cathode and anode. Aluminium can exchange 3 electrons per ion which makes its energy density around 50 times higher than Li. Having 3 electrons has its advantages and disadvantages. The latter include relatively short shelf life and issues with heat, rate of charge, overall electrical behaviour and energy capacity. Niobium Batteries Finally, there are the exciting Niobium batteries that take 1 minute to recharge due to their layered molecular structure. Cambridge-based Nyobolt is working on this unique technology that uses Niobium anode reducing the charging time drastically. Even under severe temperatures, these batteries are less prone to catching fire. Their temperature gradient is just 8 degrees Celsius compared to around 27 degrees Celsius for regular batteries. While there has been significant development in the first two technologies with BYD and CATL having commenced the production of Sodium-ion batteries in mass-market EVs, the others still are in various stages of development and testing. It would be interesting to see which out of these (if any) dominates the space by the end of this decade. Also, chances are that these might co-exist or new technologies might also crop up.

With the EV trend becoming a reality, it becomes critical to know the basics of maintenance related to your electric cars. Is it possible for the electric car batteries to be replaced or swapped? Since the adoption rate of electric cars is still minuscule compared to their internal combustion engine-powered counterparts, there are myriad queries related to them. The batteries, charging characteristics, and range anxiety continue to pose hurdles in the mass adoption of EVs. While the benefits of shifting to EVs might be quite understandable and logical, the actual implementation is enveloped in quandary and uncertainty. The aim of this article is to dispel some myths surrounding electric car batteries.  You might also like: Tesla Battery (4680) vs BYD Blade Battery – Comparison Can The Electric Car Batteries Be Swapped or Replaced? Let us try to understand this by using a familiar analogy. In the case of traditional vehicles, the engines and their components are fixed, while the fuel is needed to be filled regularly. Similarly, the electric motors on the electric cars are fixed, but the batteries that feed power to those motors could be removed or swapped, if need be, Generally, the batteries are placed underneath the floor of the vehicle and charged on a regular basis just like your smartphones, tablets or laptops.  However, with the limited charging infrastructure available in most countries and high charging times associated with EVs, people always have this range anxiety about what would happen if their EVs run out of charge on a highway. But there is a solution that might not be widespread in the personal mobility space. In the commercial electric vehicle fleet across various markets, there is the practice of swapping the batteries of the car.  You might also like: Is Electric Car Battery Safe, Fireproof, Waterproof and Short Circuit Proof? How Is It Achieved? The delivery companies, for instance, have huge warehouses where the entire fleet of their delivery vehicles is parked. There is sufficient charging infrastructure there too where the vehicles could even be charged using the regular AC chargers overnight. There is a provision for removing batteries from electric vehicles, especially commercial vans. The battery that has been charged overnight is used in the morning. It could suffice the entire day while the other battery is being charged in the meanwhile.  You might also like: What Is Vehicle To Load (V2L) & Which EVs Have This Feature? If there is an issue with the battery that is being operated or it runs out of juice, one could simply visit the warehouse and swap the discharged battery for a recharged one in a matter of minutes. The battery packs are compact and could be easily placed in their designated slot in the EV. The battery that is taken out could directly be taken to the charging station and the refuelling time (essentially) be reduced to the time taken to replace the two batteries.  This would ensure that the operations are not halted because of charging times and productivity will enhance due to the element of predictability that is achieved by this method. Slowly and steadily, with the prices of batteries coming down in the future, this solution could be utilised for personal use too. This technique is being practised even today by big companies that use electric vehicles for commercial purposes.