Week 6 Session 13

Discuss two new trends in battery system field.

Battery Swapping

Battery Swapping Technology is new swanky EV and cruising down the highway when suddenly, you get an alert saying that your battery capacity is rapidly reaching zero. You search for a plug-in charging station and thankfully, you find one just within the acceptable range of the remaining battery charge. Reaching there you find that there is a long line in front of the charging station and will take an average of 2-hours to charge your battery.

Charging an EV takes a long time, a really long time. The only models to buck this trend are the EVs released by Tesla, and only if the cars are connected to the Tesla superchargers.

Solid-State Batteries

Every single Electric Vehicle on the road requires a source of energy and typically, in the case of an all-electric vehicle, a Lithium-Ion battery pack provides this energy. Rechargeable batteries in use around the world have similar physical structures and share a few similarities viz are,

1. Cathode, the negative terminal. These electrodes are usually constructed from metal oxides of Manganese, Cobalt, Nickel, and Aluminum
2. Anode, the positive terminal. Usually constructed from Graphite or Carbon 3. Electrolyte, which allows for the movement of lithium ions from the anode to the cathode. The electrolyte is, generally, the heaviest part of the battery apparatus 4. Separator, which arrests the flow of electrons from the anode to the cathode

Batteries are generally considered to be lightweight and durable. But, powering an Electric Vehicle requires enormous wattage, and this increase in capacity comes with an increase in the weight of the battery. The lion’s share of the weight of the battery comes from the electrolyte and swapping out the electrolyte will reduce the overall weight of the battery.