Battery

Grid

Bipolar nickel-hydrogen battery for 2021 Toyota Aqua

Toyota’s new Acqua compact HEV comes with a bipolar nickel-hydrogen battery, a world first for a road vehicle according to the Japanese automotive giant (writes Peter Donaldson). Conventional non-bipolar nickel-hydrogen batteries have a much lower energy density than lithium-ion versions but much longer service lives. Compared with the nickel-hydrogen battery in the previous-generation Aqua, says […]

Grid

Solid-state batteries will be big in EVs – eventually

The promise of much safer electrolytes makes solid-state batteries attractive for EVs, particularly passenger cars, and EVs are expected to be their biggest single market (writes Peter Donaldson). However, the technology is far from mature and several challenges remain, according to Dr Xiaoxi He, principal technology analyst at IdTechEx, which has published an in-depth report […]

New Products

High-voltage breakout module needs no power meters or current transformers

Measurement and data technology company CSM has unveiled a new HV breakout module designed to meet the international safety standards required for the use of equipment in HV applications on EVs. The company says it simplifies the instrumentation, improves accuracy and reduces costs compared with systems that have not designed for in-vehicle use. When combined […]

New Products

Sono Motors’ Sion gets more powerful battery with greater range

Munich-based mobility provider Sono Motors has announced it will use a more powerful, 54 kWh, battery for use in its Sion solar EV. The new LFP (lithium iron phosphate) battery extends the vehicle’s total range by up to 305 km and its maximum charging power by up to 75 kW. The additional range provided by […]

New Products

GM to use US lithium for next-generation EV batteries through closed-loop process

General Motors has agreed to form a strategic investment and commercial collaboration with Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) to secure local and low-cost lithium. The lithium will be produced using a closed-loop, direct extraction process that results in a smaller physical footprint, no production tailings and lower CO2 emissions than traditional processes such as pit mining […]

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Thermal Management 2020

Peter Donaldson reports on the methods and materials for keeping EV batteries and other components in their optimum temperature range. Thermal management is the art and science of moving heat energy around to keep various components of a vehicle – and its occupants – at safe, efficient and comfortable working...

Deep Insight

Battery Testing

Battery test systems are proving key to speeding up the development times for new batteries, as Nick Flaherty explains. At the heart of testing battery cells, modules and packs are the levels of voltage and current. Temperature and pressure are increasingly important conditions ...

Digest

Workhorse Group C-Series

Rory Jackson details the development of these electric delivery vans, which have been designed and built from the ground up. The Workhorse Group designs and builds battery-electric medium-duty trucks, and earlier this year it started production of its C-Series vans...

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Battery materials

Nick Flaherty reports on how recent advances in materials are leading to EV batteries with ever-growing energy densities. Battery systems for e-mobility platforms are based largely around lithium chemistry. Liquid lithium salts with graphite anodes and composite metal cathodes are the dominant combination for battery cells...

Dossier

Liebherr ETM Series

Developing these all-electric cement mixer trucks has meant blending the bespoke with the off-the-shelf. Rory Jackson reports. The conventional cement truck is a diesel-powered vehicle that spends much of each working day at a standstill. However, whether it is having concrete...