Posted on 04/10/2022 3:31:57 PM PDT by NoLibZone
Nissan is working with NASA on a new type of battery for electric vehicles that promises to charge quicker and be lighter yet safe, the Japanese automaker said Friday.
The all-solid-state battery will replace the lithium-ion battery now in use for a 2028 product launch and a pilot plant launch in 2024, according to Nissan.
The all-solid-state battery is stable enough to be used in pacemakers. When finished, it will be about half the size of the current battery and fully charge in 15 minutes, instead of a few hours.
The collaboration with the U.S. space program, as well as the University of California San Diego, involves the testing of various materials, Corporate Vice President Kazuhiro Doi told reporters.
"Both NASA and Nissan need the same kind of battery," he said.
Nissan and NASA are using what's called the "original material informatics platform," a computerized database, to test various combinations to see what works best among hundreds of thousands of materials, Doi said.
The goal is to avoid the use of expensive materials like rare metals, which are needed for lithium-ion batteries.
Nissan is also counting on its historical experience with the Leaf electric car, which first hit the market in 2010 and has sold more than half a million units globally, although the battery technology is different, Doi and other company officials said.
The Leaf battery has not had any major accidents on roads, and some parts of the technology remain common, such as the lamination of the battery cell, they said.
Other automakers, including Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp., as well as Volkswagen of Germany and U.S. automakers Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co., are working on all-solid-state batteries.
Recently, General Motors and Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. said they were working together on next-generation electric vehicles.
But Nissan Executive Vice President Kunio Nakaguro said Nissan is extremely competitive and that the battery it is developing promises to be "a game-changer."
Interest in electric vehicles is growing because of concerns about the use of fossil fuels contributing to climate change and pollution. Players in the EV sector, such as Tesla and Waymo, are also growing and there is increased competition.
Nissan Motor Co., based in Yokohama, has been eager to put behind it the scandal of its former superstar executive Carlos Ghosn. He was arrested in 2018 on various financial misconduct charges in Japan, but jumped bail in late 2019 and now lives in Lebanon, a nation of his ancestry that has no extradition treaty with Japan. He says he is innocent.
Ghosn, who led Nissan for two decades, spearheaded the electric vehicle drive at the company, which also makes the March subcompact and Infiniti luxury models.
Knowing Nissan, the battery will do jack squat.
Can they build “game changing” power plants, too?
Maybe, but Toyota, Volkswagen and Panasonic are investigating big-time on this solid state battery technology.
Whoever patents it first will make potentially a lot of money.
Right up to the Chinese stealing the technology and mass producing.
So what is the underlying chemistry?
Why would they need power plants?
Everybody knows electricity is magic.
Somebody ping me when there is a press release showing this battery can get more than 100 miles per charge.
Real success is 200 miles plus.
My thoughts exactly. What was the battery capacity of the Leaf? 35 miles per charge or some such?
If the battery won’t go 500 miles per charge I won’t even think about it.
I can’t stand the description “game changer”. Maybe I thought it was OK the first hundred times I heard it.
It's made of unobtainium.
Real success is 200 miles plus.
Well, it's...it's the "testing of various materials, Corporate Vice President Kazuhiro Doi told reporters".
Sounds promising, huh?
These articles remind me of Popular Science, all those great
ideas they sold us on over the years, that never came to pass.
Some of them did, but not as many as I would have expected or
liked to have.
When do you think they’ll change their corp name back to Datsun?
Panasonic has some regular battery mojo. I had a 2005 Honda 2000S and the battery lasted to 2015. In New Mexico 3 years is the rule. I tried to find an exact replacement, but it’s a Japanese only battery that was imported with the car.
markomalley: "My thoughts exactly. What was the battery capacity of the Leaf? 35 miles per charge or some such?"
I don't know about their batteries, but I've owned a couple of their trucks (and one old Z-car ;>) which weren't bad. IIRC, the Japanese company you don't want building your car parts is Takata, of "exploding-parts-that-kill-you" fame...
Their corporate name was never Datsun. The original name was Dat Motorcar Company in 1931. They made a car model called Datson. Nissan took over Dat in 1934 and changed the car’s name to Datsun. Eventually that became the brand name in certain countries, including the US.
As soon as they rehire that German advertising firm that gave them the Datsun name last century. (j/k)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.