Electric car batteries have just had a new breakthrough: 800 km operating range, charging in 10 minutes

Panasonic has just come up with a new battery technology that has an operating range of up to 800 km and especially charging time is reduced to only 10 minutes, faster than charging a phone.

Sila, a California (USA)-based company co-founded by Tesla's seventh employee in 2011, will provide Panasonic with a silicon powder produced in the US for electric vehicle batteries, which can dispel worries in terms of range, reduced charging times and even reduced dependence on China.

Panasonic currently accounts for about 10% of electric vehicle batteries globally with the main customer being Tesla. Last year, Sila signed a supply agreement for Mercedes-Benz's new G-class long-range electric SUV, scheduled to launch in 2025. The German automaker led Sila's Series E investment round in 2019 .

Sila's Titanium Silicon anode powder consists of microscopically structured silicon particles that replace graphite in traditional lithium-ion batteries. Electric vehicle batteries using Titan Silicon anode powder will have a range of up to 800 km and recharge in 10 minutes. Furthermore, switching to Titanium Silicon anodes requires no new manufacturing techniques. This Titan Silicon anode powder has been applied to Whoop's latest activity tracking wearable.

“It took us 12 years and 80.000 iterations to get here,” said Gene Berdichevsky, co-founder and CEO of Sila. It's complicated science.” Berdichevsky began his career at Tesla, becoming its seventh employee in 2004. He was the head of Tesla's Roadster battery system, leaving when the company had about 300 employees. After further research, he co-founded Sila with Tesla colleague Alex Jacobs and Gleb Yushin, a materials science professor at Georgia Tech.

New battery technology

Compared to graphite, silicon stores up to 10 times more energy, so using silicon instead of graphite as the anode – the part that releases electrons during discharge – can significantly improve energy density. of battery. However, this material has the limitation that it will swell during repeated charging, leading to cracks that reduce battery life.

Sila's technology enables this scaling by using nano-sized carbon "scaffolds" to keep the silicon in check. “Titanium Silicon is a nanocomposite material,” Berdichevsky said. It is like raisin bread, where the raisins are silicone and there is a soft matrix surrounding the raisins. The skin holds the space and the bread moves to the side as the raisins expand. The scaffold does not hold the silicon, it supports expansion.”

Sila's technology is now patented. “We can replace 50 to 100 percent of graphite in lithium-ion batteries,” Berdichevsky claims. A complete replacement can increase the range of a conventional electric vehicle by 40% and reduce charging wait times by up to 80%, with charging times only taking slightly longer than refueling yourself.

Sila says that Titan Silicon is about five times lighter than graphite and takes up about half the space when fully charged. In a press release announcing the deal with Sila, Panasonic said it aims to increase the volumetric energy density of its batteries to 5 watt-hours per liter by 1.000.

“That's a very high barometer,” Berdichevsky said. “The best batteries in the world today have an output of about 740 watts per hour, and those are also numbers that solid-state battery developers claim they can achieve. We are saying we can get to those levels soon with the technology that is here.”

Replacing graphite in electric vehicle batteries
Graphite is the world's default anode material, present in almost all lithium-ion batteries and accounting for up to 60% of the battery's volume. According to a report by the International Energy Agency, about three-quarters of all electric vehicle batteries are currently produced in China.

Mining consulting firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimates that China produces 61% of the world's natural graphite and refines 98% of finished graphite raw materials.

Silicon is the world's second most abundant element in the earth's crust. Since 2017, Sila's anode powder for consumer electronics has been produced in a pilot facility at the company's headquarters in Alameda, California. However, for automotive-scale production, the company is currently building a 557.000-square-foot fiberglass plant in Moses Lake, Washington, initially employing 2 people, mostly locals, with plans to increased by 100 people as the company grew.

A regulation passed by the European Parliament in June gave Sila a leg up. Europe currently requires all electric vehicle batteries intended for the European market to have a label declaring their carbon emissions, known as a “battery passport”.

In the US market, to qualify for electric vehicle subsidies, battery materials must be sourced domestically or from allied countries. For electric vehicles that use materials originating from China in their batteries, buyers will not receive the $7.500 subsidy (about VND 180 million).

Sila is not the only manufacturer of silicon powder materials for electric vehicles. About 1 km away from Sila's fiberglass factory, Group14 Technologies has started construction on a new factory that will produce similar powder for Porsche cars.

The German automaker led a $614 million investment round in Group14 last year. When Group14 Technologies' (7-year-old company) factory opens in 2024, it will produce enough SCC55 anode powder for 200.000 electric vehicles per year.

“There are companies with partnerships and collaborations, but they are all still in development, while we are ready for large-scale production,” Berdichevsky stated.

Sila and Group14 both received $100 million in federal grants to build their silicon anode factories.

Jay Turner, a professor of environmental studies at Wellesley College, told WIRED that producing new EV battery technology domestically on a large scale is understandably a big deal. Historically, the United States has been a leader in advanced battery research, but much of the actual manufacturing takes place overseas. It is exciting to see US-developed research replicated in US factories. Sila and Group14 are both well positioned to scale.

Traditional battery replacement trend

However, Sila and Group14 are just two of the silicon anode manufacturers in the US. California companies OneD Battery Sciences and Amprius developed silicon nanowires that are said to be less prone to swelling than silicon nanopowder.

Amprius, founded in 2008 by Stanford materials science professor Yi Cui, has focused on silicon anodes for the aerospace sector, while OneD Battery Sciences will bring its silicon nanotechnology to General Motor's Ultium batteries. .

Instead of making silicon nanoparticles or nanowires, Enevate, also in California, places nano-sized silicon films directly onto copper foil. Enevate's silicon anode batteries are already being used in electric motorcycles.

Chicago startup NanoGraf creates a silicon oxide material for the anode that pre-swells to stabilize. NanoGraf's anodes are used in military electronics.

Developers of other battery chemistries are looking to replace traditional lithium-ion altogether. Tesla already produces cars using lithium-iron-phosphate batteries; Toyota has been teasing industry insiders with its solid-state batteries; Chinese companies are developing sodium-ion (Na-ion) technology that requires little or no lithium, nickel or cobalt; and Samsung SDI is perfecting batteries with high manganese content.

There may very well be room for all of the above in a growing global electric vehicle market. Indeed, the UK's Advanced Propulsion Centre, an expert in emerging battery technologies, says this change in electrical technology is "not that one type [battery chemistry] is winning over the other, because performance characteristics mean user cases will vary.”

*Source: Vn Review