Lithium-Ion Battery Breakthrough For Electric Vehicles At Australian University

The Motor Report ^ | 06-04-2013 | Trevor Collett

[Red Badger]

The University of Wollongong has reached a breakthrough with its research on lithium-ion batteries which could make electric vehicles (EVs) more viable in the near future.

The university’s Institute for Superconducting & Electronic Materials (ISEM) has used a new Germanium-based material, capable of storing five times more energy than a ‘conventional’ lithium-ion battery.

Researchers at the university believe this new technology to EVs could at the very least double the distance that the car can travel on a single charge.

And the benefits don’t end there, with the new batteries bringing a significant reduction in charging times, and a relatively inexpensive manufacturing technique.

The price of Germanium is higher than materials currently used to make batteries, but Professor Zaiping Guo from ISEM is confident that prices could fall under mass production.

“The novel anode materials are very simple to synthesize and cost-effective,” Ms Guo said.

“They can be fabricated in large-scale by industry and therefore have great commercial potential.”

“We’re truly excited about this breakthrough and are looking forward to transitioning this technology to the commercial marketplace.”

As well as improvements to EVs, the new battery technology could also be used in consumer electronics - such as mobile phones and laptops - and is even capable of grid-scale energy storage.

[-YYZ-]

I’m not sure what you’re talking about. The subject here was how much energy, in units of e.g. Watt-hours, or Joules, etc the battery can store. The article wasn’t clear, however, on whether that was an increase in energy/volume or energy/mass. Assuming the article meant that this technology would allow 5 times the energy volume and mass density, I would assume that it would allow 5 times the range for a same-sized (in terms of mass and volume) battery. A five-fold increase in battery energy density is a huge deal, btw.

[-YYZ-]

Technology like copper wires over an inch in diameter? You'll get 5 miles out of a kWH at best in your car so you'll need 100kWh (assuming no losses). 100 kWh at 400 volts and 15 minutes (assuming no charging losses) is 1000 amps. That's assuming the generator is in your shed 50 feet from the car, otherwise add to the wire size.

That's something people always miss when they're talking about fast charging really high capacity batteries like these - massive currents that would require huge conductors. Presumably one could go to even higher voltages, although I think there's a limit to how high of voltages you want inside a car.

[BfloGuy]

I think the Tesla is a beautiful car — think the same of the Fisker-Karma. Just don’t like the government subsidies [on both ends of the purchase] for a technology that very few people will pay for in its current state.