Expected Improvements to Lithium-Ion Batteries

Electric cars represent humanity’s next phase of automobiles. While very popular, the technology is still young and manufacturers are constantly tweaking it to get the best product. One area that has received quite the attention is the lithium-ion battery which powers electric vehicles.

As EV makers and battery manufacturers work on perfecting battery designs, there have been increasing concerns about the future supply of key materials. According to Hans Eric Melon, founder of Circular Energy Storage, a consultancy focused on battery end-of-life management, concerns over cobalt, are especially forcing battery makers to move toward cobalt-light lithium-ion formulations. Cobalt is sourced from the politically volatile Democratic Republic of Congo.

Early this year, Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (“CATL”) commercialized a lithium nickel-manganese-cobalt (“NMC”) cathode chemistry with eight parts of nickel for each part of cobalt known as 811. The mix is the latest in a line of NMC cathode chemistries where the ratio of cobalt is reduced in favor of other materials like nickel which are cheaper and easier to source.

The 811 formulation is quickly gaining ground on two other slightly less low-cobalt variants, NMC 532 and 622. In August, 13% of passenger EV batteries sold in China had NMC 811 cathodes, a 1% increase from January, says minerals advisory firm Adams Intelligence. NMC 811 cathodes trailed behind NMC 532.

According to Adams Intelligence the rapid rise of 811 in the Chinese market is largely due to CATL supplying batteries for popular EV models. “With CATL continuing to forge new supply agreements, and other key Asian cell suppliers at the outset of commercial production, we expect the market share and global footprint of NMC 811 will expand substantially over the coming 18 to 24 months.”

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), on the other hand, has opted for another formulation. The EV maker uses a nickel-cobalt-aluminum oxide cathode that contains “substantially less cobalt than the industry-standard batteries based on a nickel-manganese-cobalt oxide chemistry,” said the company’s 2018 Impact Report.

“Tesla not only uses far less cobalt per vehicle than the rest of the electric vehicle industry but also plans to recycle and reuse the cobalt at these batteries’ end of life,” the company states. Tesla is planning on completely eliminating cobalt from its formulations.”

Rounding things off is Aceleron, a British company supported by Shell Ventures. The company has created a lithium-ion-phosphate battery that can be serviced and reused as easily as a lead acid battery. These batteries are designed for off-grid stationary storage applications in places like sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.

“We’ve designed the batteries so they can be taken apart in places where they don’t have high-tech components,” said Amrit Chandan, Aceleron’s co-founder and CEO.

All these developments are likely to make batteries not only more affordable but also less harmful to the environment.

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