Evolution of EV batteries

The EV battery manufacturing industry is going through tremendous development and has gained much pace in the last five years. This comes as a response to massive EV adoption that is driven by the EV industry competing with Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles in virtually every specification. Nowadays, a typical Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) can travel as far as 600 km on a single charge. The journey of electric vehicles to where they stand today has been full of hurdles and requires a deeper look at the evolution of their primary component- the battery.??

EV batteries and their advancement

It has been over 221 years since the first battery was introduced to the world by Alessandro Volta. But its first significant use for the purpose of electromobility was made in 1821 by a British naturalist named Michael Faraday. Cut to the end of the 19th century and electric vehicles were reported to have twice the share of cars with combustion engines. In 1888, the battery technology used in world’s first four-wheeled electric-powered vehicle by a German inventor Andreas Flocken was much advanced.

However, it was only in 2012 that Tesla, the electric vehicle brand collaborated with Panasonic to reformulate the battery components and introduced aluminum which drastically impacted the manufacturing industry in terms of its mass production and availability.?

If we analyse the advancement of EV batteries, we can measure it on few parameters as below-??

Advancement in technology- Lithium-ion batteries are the most common type that is in use today and are expected to be so in Electric Vehicles in the future as well. From the earlier use of Lead-acid batteries, lithium-ion became widely used because they had right power-to-weight ratio, high energy efficiency, and the materials were easily recyclable. ?The inclusion of materials such as graphite, cobalt, manganese and nickel ensure that batteries last longer than 10 years.?

Some preliminary research indicates that a new type of solid-state batteries could be powering the Electric Vehicles of the future. These highly advanced batteries will be able to charge faster and have much lower chances of catching fire. However, industry experts predict that possibility of the mass use of solid-state batteries is atleast three or five years away.???

Cost- A majority of commercially available EV batteries have been quite expensive since the 1970s. However, due to major technological developments, the battery costs slipped down from $1,000/kWh to $227/kWh from 2010 to 2016. This led to the democratization of the EV batteries as these became readily available and people could finally afford them for regular use.?It is also projected that the cost of these batteries would be cut by half by the next decade which would be a huge development.?

Such as massive reduction in the battery cost will dramatically affect the overall electric vehicles sales and a resultant increase in the EV adoption across the globe.?

Battery Capacity and cycles- EV batteries witnessed a significant increase in capacities since 2013. It is worth noting that the battery base packs grew from 24kWh to 30kW in low-range EV models and 60Kwh to 75Kwh in high range models. This development has led to a global standardization of the battery capacities that would offer a 20-40 % increase in the range of the vehicles. Larger battery packs empower the vehicles to travel more distances, thus competing with the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles.

In normal usage, an EV battery goes through a series of charge and discharge which is typically called a cycle count of the battery. Lithium-ion batteries tend to last 3,000-5,000 full cycles which is currently the highest practical battery life cycle when compared to any other type of battery. Research is underway to increase the potential cycle counts of these batteries.??

Considering how every battery is subjected to degradation over time, a major emphasis is given to battery life cycle management. This comes as an aid to prevent toxic landfill waste that leads to severe environmental problems in itself.?

Conclusion ?

The EV batteries have a come a long way to cater to the needs of the masses. With the advancement in technology and extensive amounts of Research & Development, the EV batteries are going to be more customer and environment friendly. Easy availability of components and newer developments in the EV space will trigger growth and adoption in the future.??