By Akshay Asija
Electric vehicles (EVs) are being touted as the future of road transport. Increasing pollution levels and the rising costs of fossil fuels have prompted several automakers to manufacture impressive new models of electric vehicles. These vehicles can, however, only travel a limited distance on a single charge. Charging these machines also takes a longer time than refuelling a conventional car.
Solid-state batteries are the answer
The lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries used in current electric vehicles impose limitations on their travel range and charging time. These vehicles’ batteries cannot hold a very large amount of charge and require a long time to charge. Fisker Inc, an American electric vehicle manufacturer, claims to have found a solution to this problem.
At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the company showcased a new battery technology for EVs. According to Henrik Fisker, the company’s CEO, new ‘solid-state’ batteries have much higher energy densities compared to the current lithium-ion batteries. This means that the new batteries can hold about 2.5 times as much energy as most Li-ion batteries. Solid-state batteries also have smaller charging times. Fisker claims that its solid-state batteries can be fully charged within a minute.
The advantages of solid-state batteries are due to the electrodes they use, which have approximately 1.25 times the surface area of the thin-film electrodes used in Li-ion batteries. Solid-state batteries also have higher ionic and electronic conductivity. Also, in Li-ion batteries, the flow of current must travel through either liquids or polymers, while the solid state batteries remove the need for any additional conductive material. Furthermore, the manufacture of conventional batteries involves using expensive solvents, while solid-state batteries use only water. Thus, the cost of solid-state batteries is expected to be much lower than the batteries that are currently available.
When do the new batteries arrive?
Technical limitations have so far prevented the manufacture of solid-state batteries of the size and capacity required for use in automobiles. Another drawback of these batteries is that they have a low rate capability and poor performance, especially in colder temperatures. Fisker says that it is going to address these issues before putting them into mass production, which the company expects to happen sometime after 2020.
When ready, the new solid-state batteries will be able to power cars for a travel range of 500 miles on a single charge. The Tesla Model S P100D, in comparison, manages only about 300 miles on a single charge. Electric vehicles are set to become the norm on the roads in the next few years. With innovations like solid-state batteries and the pioneering efforts of Tesla, Fisker, and others, that future is set to arrive sooner than expected.
Featured Image Source: Flickr
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