E9: BATTERIES, RANGE AND CHARGING

Good afternoon from sunny London,

For those interested in Batteries, Range and Charging read on for a snippet of what the industry has to say:

In a recent Reuters Events survey, the respondents wonder how to deal with raw material shortages, and they seek definition of the battery value chain. They’re looking for clarity on inspections for battery quality and hope to find solutions for battery recycling.

Aside from producing EVs, the industry and government must do more to support electric driving. Better batteries with more range are far from the only answer. In fact, Inga von Seelen, SVP Purchasing NAR and chief purchasing officer for Volkswagen of America, thinks that as charging infrastructure becomes more prevalent, range will be less of a barrier for consumers. She sees the target range right now for most OEMs as between 200 and 300 miles. Quicker, more frequent charging could let people drive confidently with smaller batteries.

“If range is not the most important thing, because charger coverage is a given, that gives us better battery scale effects.”

Moreover, consumers could decide how much range they wanted to invest in.

Still, a question in the minds of some of our survey respondents is, “Will the Future Battery system currently still under development cover the complete demand of New Energy Vehicles till 2030 and beyond?”

The State of Michigan may be the best U.S. example of a charging initiative. Currently, although it began its Charge Up Michigan program five years ago, the state has some 2,600 charging points in total. Zachary Kolodin, chief infrastructure officer and director of the Michigan Infrastructure Office, admits that’s not enough. Michigan aims to have chargers installed every 50 miles by 2026.

The state is using a public/private partnership model. The state, private enterprise and the federal government each fund approximately a third of the cost. Now, Kolodin says, with billions of dollars available through the federal government for infrastructure, the state will maintain that model.

Energy producers must also get involved, von Seelen pointed out, because they’ll not only need to produce more electricity, they’ll need to do that in a sustainable, nonpolluting way.

Another challenge, according to Kolodin, is maintenance. He says, “The challenge is not thinking about the charging network only as a piece of infrastructure in its own right, but also thinking of each individual node of that network that needs to be maintained at a high level of service.”

Especially when serving rural areas, where the density of chargers is less, the few that are available must work reliably.

“As we design these partnerships, we need to make sure we have solid plans for the operation and maintenance, and a funding mechanism for maintenance to provide that level of customer service,” Kolodin says.

To provide that high level of reliability, innovation needs to occur in the charging networks themselves, as well as in each node, notes Roger Keen, general manager, battery management systems, for Analog Devices. The networks

must not only provide info on whether a node is operating but also give some level of diagnostics.

Says Kolodin, “It’s on all of us.”

We will delve into the battery, range and charging agenda in detail at this year's Reuters Events Automotive USA meeting (Nov 7-8, Detroit)