Porsche leading Silicon Carbon Battery Push

[Arthur Hanson]

Porsche Invests Millions in American Battery Company

The company makes high-tech silicon-carbon anodes.

www.motortrend.com

It looks like the silicon carbon battery may be a serious contender with Porsche, known for their engineering talent leading the charge. Any thoughts or comments appreciated. If so, this will be a game changer with batteries made out of common, low cost materials.

 

[IanD]

Porsche Invests Millions in American Battery Company

The company makes high-tech silicon-carbon anodes.

www.motortrend.com

It looks like the silicon carbon battery may be a serious contender with Porsche, known for their engineering talent leading the charge. Any thoughts or comments appreciated. If so, this will be a game changer with batteries made out of common, low cost materials.

It's not a "silicon-carbon battery", it's a lithium-ion battery with a different anode material, silicon-carbon instead of graphite. All are commonly available and cheap, it's the other battery components that are rare or expensive.

So it could deliver longer life, a bit lighter weight and a bit higher density, but there's no reason it should be a game-changer -- especially not on cost. It's another incremental improvement in battery technology, not a revolution.

 

[DaRAGingLunatic]

All these incremements sure do add up.

So the article is talking about a 50% gain in life cycle energy density. What does that mean?
Life cycle energy density refers to the amount of energy that can be stored and released from a lithium-ion battery over its lifetime. It takes into account the total amount of energy that the battery can provide over the course of its useful life, including any energy that may be lost due to degradation or other factors.

The energy density of a lithium-ion battery typically decreases over time as the battery is cycled, or charged and discharged. This degradation can be caused by a number of factors, including temperature, depth of discharge, and the number of charge cycles the battery undergoes.

When evaluating lithium-ion batteries for use in applications such as electric vehicles or renewable energy storage, life cycle energy density is an important consideration, as it affects the overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the system. Batteries with higher life cycle energy density will be able to provide more energy over their lifetime, making them more cost-effective in the long run.

50% is pretty darn good for a change in an anode. it's like instead of over 5 years your phone battery now only charges up to 80% of original capacity, it instead charges up to 90%.

 

[IanD]

All these incremements sure do add up.

So the article is talking about a 50% gain in life cycle energy density. What does that mean?
Life cycle energy density refers to the amount of energy that can be stored and released from a lithium-ion battery over its lifetime. It takes into account the total amount of energy that the battery can provide over the course of its useful life, including any energy that may be lost due to degradation or other factors.

The energy density of a lithium-ion battery typically decreases over time as the battery is cycled, or charged and discharged. This degradation can be caused by a number of factors, including temperature, depth of discharge, and the number of charge cycles the battery undergoes.

When evaluating lithium-ion batteries for use in applications such as electric vehicles or renewable energy storage, life cycle energy density is an important consideration, as it affects the overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the system. Batteries with higher life cycle energy density will be able to provide more energy over their lifetime, making them more cost-effective in the long run.

50% is pretty darn good for a change in an anode. it's like instead of over 5 years your phone battery now only charges up to 80% of original capacity, it instead charges up to 90%.

Except that -- like being able to charge in 5 minutes -- this doesn't really matter for most EVs, given that existing batteries are already lasting for hundreds of thousands of miles, which for typical driving is more than the life of the car -- it will make a difference for the small number of drivers who clock up massive mileages.

(super-fast charging is great for phones, less useful for cars where you need to get a megawatt or so from somewhere and then get it down the cables and into the batteries...)

 

[Tanj]

existing batteries are already lasting for hundreds of thousands of miles, which for typical driving is more than the life of the car -- it will make a difference for the small number of drivers who clock up massive mileages.

(super-fast charging is great for phones, less useful for cars where you need to get a megawatt or so from somewhere and then get it down the cables and into the batteries...)

You forget that major reasons for short life on vehicles are the engine and drive train. EVs are far simpler, so it the battery lasts longer then the vehicle lasts longer too.

I agree that pervasive level 2 charging (parking stalls at work and malls, especially daytime parking in states with good solar potential) is far more important than supercharging, but the supercharger sites are useful along highways and other longer routes. They usually incorporate their own batteries to moderate the infrastructure needs.