When solid-state batteries arrive, you'll want an electric car

we haven't perfected the current lithium-ion batteries in electric cars yet but in spite of that or maybe because of it we're already in the hunt to replace those and that's where the solid state battery comes in let's find out why people are so excited about it what the hurdles are and who's chasing it [Music] now as you probably know the lithium-ion battery kind of runs everything these days your phone your tablet your laptop just about anything you have of any sophistication that has a battery in it probably has a lithium-ion rechargeable battery a tesla car for example has a giant battery pack made up of thousands of these guys these are what they call an 18650 cell kind of a giant double a loosely correlated to that battery and these are great so far as you know being a lithium-ion battery owner in many devices they're not perfect they don't last as long as you like they don't charge as quickly as you'd like we have no point of reference yet but they're heavier and bulkier than you would like if you had a choice frankly the biggest innovation in lithium-ion batteries over the last few years has not been in their performance but in the decrease of their price per kilowatt hour that has been dramatic but their size weight and energy density has not increased nearly that quickly enter the solid state battery now as the name solid-state batteries suggest they are truly solid state unlike these guys that have kind of a wet slurry inside them packed firm but not truly hard you ever grab one of these and squeeze it you can feel it give that's part of the nature of its chemistry a solid state battery is so hard because it's hard materials packed very tightly under pressure with any liquid or give in between them that's why the name is what it is the benefits are what you care about greater energy density that could mean an electric car with two or three times the current range or an electric car with the same range but with a smaller lighter less expensive battery that charges faster general estimates are an eighty percent charge in 15 minutes with a solid state ev battery so it's faster than today's lithium ion for sure but still slower than a gas pump or a capacitor longer life solid state tech underpins a general motors hope to one day produce a million mile life battery changing the affordability equation and reducing concerns about mountains of toxic ev batteries coming up for recycling one day and thermal runaway solid-state batteries have a lot less risk of this that's what lithium-ion batteries do when they start to get too hot and burn or almost explode it's why you've got to put that special label on some of those amazon returns or why they ask you if you've got lithium ion in your checked bag or why you'll never forget some of those video clips of burning teslas [Music] ironically the same company that did the most to put exploding lithium ion batteries into the headlines actually had a recent breakthrough that might end that thanks to solid state technology more on that in a moment solid state batteries sound great right they've got plenty of drawbacks that's why you don't have one yet expansion and contraction batteries do that when charging and discharging very slightly because of heating and cooling but a solid state battery is well solid state any movement in it can micro crack and corrupt the tight precise arrangement of the particles inside it then the battery fails dendrites these are sort of invasive root structures that can grow inside a solid-state battery and as they cross dividing layers the battery fails and expense as you can imagine solid-state batteries are still fabulously expensive more than the car they would go into for example but what wasn't before it was solved and put in scale manufacturing [Music] okay so who's pushing this revolution one of the companies that comes to mind the most is called quantum scape a company that has a big investment in partnership with volkswagen for example expectations are that that duo will produce a solid-state battery for use in some volkswagen evs as soon as 2024 and quantum escape says they've got a layer of ceramic in their design that is able to stop those dendrites from working their way through the cell and ruining it they also say their design is pretty darn good at very low temperatures not losing too much capacity in snowy weather and such that's going to be good news for a lot of ev intenders who said i lose so much mileage during the winter it's not worth it the other most exciting one i'd watch would be toyota they plan to have a very limited production car powered by solid-state batteries on the market in some form by 2025 now it's not coming to a showroom near you but some kind of vehicle even more interesting is their partner panasonic who is all in on traditional lithium ion right now on the gigafactory with tesla out in nevada so they see something else brewing out there on the horizon [Music] bolare of france has a solid state battery on the market in a vehicle not a passenger car though they're used in some buses that have the infrastructure and usage cycle where they can be warmed up and kept hot throughout the day which is key to their formulation working now bolare says they'll have a passenger car version out around 2026 so it's like every year we get another innovation in solid state solid power is a startup that sees solid state batteries differently yes they're developing one but their focus is almost more on the manufacturing of them saying theirs will be something you can make on existing lithium-ion production lines they feel if you don't do that the economics won't support the scaling of solid-state batteries so heavy has been the investment in lithium-ion production lines as well as the future investment they've attracted bmw and ford as interested partners and i mentioned samsung's had a recent breakthrough in solid-state batteries they say they have also conquered the dendrite issue as quantum scape says they have but also that they've got a battery design that will allow it to be discharged and recharged up to a thousand times now let's say you're talking about a model s with 350 miles of range that's a 350 000 mile battery with little or no drop off in its capacity that means one battery pack would now be assigned to more than one car over its lifetime which has very interesting effects on the overall economics of future electric cars so some interesting technology hurdles to watch some fascinating promises and some very credible players are involved the solid state battery is not coming tomorrow but 24 25 26 are three years where a lot of companies have put their name to some deliverable promises should they succeed it appears to be a battery technology that could at least roughly double the palatability of electric cars

Channel: Roadshow

Views: 1,106,496

Keywords: batteries, tesla batteries, ev batteries, solid state batteries, lithium ion batteries, new batteries, better batteries, electric car batteries, quantumscape batteries, lithium ion car batteries, electric car new batteries, electric vehicle batteries, lithium ion electric vehicle batteries, battery, tesla battery, ev battery, materials, electric vehicle, future electric, future batteries, battery tech, car batteries

Id: ArsBX4RyOsw

Length: 7min 16sec (436 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 25 2021