RandyDSok
Well-Known Member
I posted this privately to Tony originally... then I thought it may interest others here as well. None of this is a certainty yet although a couple are pretty likely from how they are talked about. I suspect that in just a few to maybe five years at most, something here will likely replace our current lithium ion batteries we are now using....
One area you may see something in relatively soon are batteries. The current type of lithium ion batteries probably won't be around much longer. Tesla ( the car company, not the scientist lol )... acquired two companies that has battery tech, one was Maxwell that also produces super capacitors ( pretty cool in itself ) and HiBar. They've also partnered with universities to help discover newer battery tech.
Maxwell has a process to create what they refer to as dry cell electrodes. This would replace the slurry mix they currently have to make and then dry in ovens and creates the electrodes with a dry method eliminating some steps... which would decrease the amount of the manufacturing space needed for those steps by 16 times which would give more space for other production steps. It's also said to increase the storage density by 20% currently with them thinking 50% may be possible. This can go a couple of ways, decrease the weight of the batteries ... or increase their capacity and both would increase the range of vehicles.
I suspect you know a bit about super capacitors ( aka ultra capacitors ) but just to cover them briefly... They are just like regular caps but can retain a charge for much longer and in greater capacities. Their advantage over batteries themselves is being about to be very quickly charged or discharged. Used in combination with batteries, they could be used to buffer a charge or discharge. Imagine being about too quickly charge up the caps enough for a 30, 70 mile charge or more in mere seconds. During regen braking, they could take the charge in and then slowly recharge the batteries or hold it for direct use by the motor if needed. This would greatly reduce the wear on the batteries.
I don't currently know much about the Hibar technology that Tesla gets. I do know they ( Hibar ) has IP for battery casing and assembly techniques. If nothing else, this may reduce the amount of IP that Tesla may need to license from the other battery companies like Panasonic, LG and others.
They are also in partnership with several universities to develop new battery tech. One of these, Illinois, just recently announced they have been able to create a mono-crystalline battery. While they didn't say this was a solid state battery or not... it's believed by many that it is. If so, this will also make the batteries smaller and lighter. By going to solid state ( or a hybrid of it perhaps ), it also would eliminate the liquid electrolyte that is so flammable currently and address that safety issue.
Tesla has also announced a set of batteries that would allow enough recharges to reach a million miles. This alone is a huge thing. Imagine a set of batteries that would be likely to outlive your car by 4 times ( at 250,000 miles seen on some IC cars currently ). Currently, Tesla is getting about 2000-3000 recharge cycles with each charge having between 230 to 330 miles range.
Another related one... is carbon dioxide batteries. These would have 7x the capacity of currently lith-ion technology but originally they could only get about 10-20 charges out of them. Recent research has now gotten them to about 500 recharge cycles.
The battery tech that the Illinois University has come up with... was released by Tesla to the public domain. Elon could have easily kept that IP secret for a competitive advantage over the other EV car companies... yet he didn't, thinking it would help drive the industry more and probably end up helping himself ( aka Tesla ) in the long run.
One area you may see something in relatively soon are batteries. The current type of lithium ion batteries probably won't be around much longer. Tesla ( the car company, not the scientist lol )... acquired two companies that has battery tech, one was Maxwell that also produces super capacitors ( pretty cool in itself ) and HiBar. They've also partnered with universities to help discover newer battery tech.
Maxwell has a process to create what they refer to as dry cell electrodes. This would replace the slurry mix they currently have to make and then dry in ovens and creates the electrodes with a dry method eliminating some steps... which would decrease the amount of the manufacturing space needed for those steps by 16 times which would give more space for other production steps. It's also said to increase the storage density by 20% currently with them thinking 50% may be possible. This can go a couple of ways, decrease the weight of the batteries ... or increase their capacity and both would increase the range of vehicles.
I suspect you know a bit about super capacitors ( aka ultra capacitors ) but just to cover them briefly... They are just like regular caps but can retain a charge for much longer and in greater capacities. Their advantage over batteries themselves is being about to be very quickly charged or discharged. Used in combination with batteries, they could be used to buffer a charge or discharge. Imagine being about too quickly charge up the caps enough for a 30, 70 mile charge or more in mere seconds. During regen braking, they could take the charge in and then slowly recharge the batteries or hold it for direct use by the motor if needed. This would greatly reduce the wear on the batteries.
I don't currently know much about the Hibar technology that Tesla gets. I do know they ( Hibar ) has IP for battery casing and assembly techniques. If nothing else, this may reduce the amount of IP that Tesla may need to license from the other battery companies like Panasonic, LG and others.
They are also in partnership with several universities to develop new battery tech. One of these, Illinois, just recently announced they have been able to create a mono-crystalline battery. While they didn't say this was a solid state battery or not... it's believed by many that it is. If so, this will also make the batteries smaller and lighter. By going to solid state ( or a hybrid of it perhaps ), it also would eliminate the liquid electrolyte that is so flammable currently and address that safety issue.
Tesla has also announced a set of batteries that would allow enough recharges to reach a million miles. This alone is a huge thing. Imagine a set of batteries that would be likely to outlive your car by 4 times ( at 250,000 miles seen on some IC cars currently ). Currently, Tesla is getting about 2000-3000 recharge cycles with each charge having between 230 to 330 miles range.
Another related one... is carbon dioxide batteries. These would have 7x the capacity of currently lith-ion technology but originally they could only get about 10-20 charges out of them. Recent research has now gotten them to about 500 recharge cycles.
The battery tech that the Illinois University has come up with... was released by Tesla to the public domain. Elon could have easily kept that IP secret for a competitive advantage over the other EV car companies... yet he didn't, thinking it would help drive the industry more and probably end up helping himself ( aka Tesla ) in the long run.