Most of today's pure electric vehicles and those announced for the next few years offer only 100 miles range. Ask a roomful of people if they would buy a car with that range and usually no hands go up.
In these pure electric cars, buses and so on, today's Second Generation lithium-ion batteries offer considerable safety, cost and performance improvement on earlier ones with simple lithium cobalt oxide cathodes.
However, they are still not powerful enough for most individuals and fleet owners seeking an affordable pure electric on-road vehicle. Pile in enough batteries to get 250 miles range or so and they become unaffordable to all but a few. For example, the few Chinese pure electric cars with this range have disappointing sales.
The term Third Generation traction battery is commonly applied to affordable versions with higher energy density. Unfortunately, that often means going back to problems of safety and life and overcoming them with new chemistry that gives that extra punch. Among the candidates are lithium sulfur batteries of Sion Power that flew successfully in the Solar Impulse all electric aircraft and ones coming along from Oxis Energy in the UK. Even greater energy density may be available from lithium air if it can be made safe and long lived. Zinc air may be a half way house.
Donald Eigler of IBM, said recently to EV World that, "One way we're tackling these challenges is the ambitious Battery 500 Project. The goal? Develop lightweight, rechargeable batteries that can power cars for 500 miles without being recharged and that don't break the bank either."
He added, "When it comes to energy density - the amount of power a battery can deliver for its size and weight - even lithium ion batteries are pipsqueaks compared to a tank of gasoline, so researchers around the world are working on new chemistries such as metal-air batteries. These batteries already power millions of very small devices. The challenge is to make them rechargeable and big enough for cars. Metal-air batteries have much higher energy densities than (today's) lithium-ion batteries -- which could translate into 500 miles of range per charge using a reasonably sized and hopefully affordable battery. But make no mistake, this may be as big a technical challenge as the moon landing once was. We are making good progress in our laboratories. This is only our second year of work on lithium air batteries at IBM Research, yet we're getting cautiously optimistic and expect to show a large laboratory prototype within the next two years."
Alongside this effort is the lithium air battery development at PolyPlus Battery Company, also in the USA. The latest progress by this company will be presented at the IDTechEx Future of Electric Vehicles event in San Jose December 7-8 which concentrates on future breakthroughs and the big picture - EVs for land, water and air - because so many use the same components and breakthroughs in one type of vehicle can usually be transferred to others.
Cars are often laggards in adopting new electric drive innovations, so looking at these alone is misleading. Eigler says that the pay-off, if successful, could transform economies and have major impact on American oil use because 70% of all oil used in the USA is burned in cars and trucks, whereas virtually no oil is being used in generating electricity. Many other companies working towards this end will be presenting at, Future of Electric Vehicles including BMW, Nissan, FIAT, Siemens and even NASA. Early Bird Bookers get a free copy of the new $3000 report, "Electric Buses and Taxis 2011-2021" and there are visits to KleenSpeed (200 mph Formula One pure electric racer, family EVs) and SunPods (solar powered charging stations).
Read the IDTechEx report Electric Vehicle Traction Batteries 2010-2020.
Image source: New Energy and Fuel
