Saturday 27 November 2010
Many people think that battery technology has not advanced much. Indeed, when one thinks of battery electric cars, their batteries are considered slow to charge, and do not last long.
On the 31st October 2010, the website Taranfx (new Geeknizer), along with other websites, reported about an important breakthrough which a Berlin company called DBM Energy has made. DBM Energy already manufacture batteries which allow forklift trucks to operate in warehouses for 28 hours between charges. Working with Berlin energy supplier Lekker Energie, DBM Energy has invented a Lithium Metal Polymer battery, the KOLIBRI, which has had brilliant results when test driven in a car, with just a 6 min charge meant the car was able to travel 600 km, a new world record for an electric vehicle.
The KOLIBRI battery was tested in a standard Audi A2, everything was standard except for the battery. Just 6 min of charge time meant 360 MJ (100 kWh) of energy was added to this Lithium Metal Polymer battery. The charging time is fast, and it would be great if the battery lasts several thousand charging cycles or more, indeed Taranfx say that "if [this] battery can sustain 2 500 [charging] cycles with this kind of fast charger, [that] is another breakthrough".
After charging the car, the car travelled for 600 km in a journey lasting 7 hours from München to Berlin, at speeds averaging 90 km/h. This drive was called the Projekt München-Berlin, and DBM were testing if their batteries could be applied to cars and other vehicles as well as forklifts. The results are highly promising, and the car was not even optimised for optimal battery performance, so with lighter cars efficiency can be even better still. By contrast today's production or planned electric cars have a range of no more than 100-200 km per charge (these are aimed at commuters typically), although the Tesla Roadster Model S has a nominal range of 483 km per charge.
And DBM believe that they can manufacture their Lithium Metal Polymer battery cheaper than the other Lithium-ion batteries being developed. This is also very good news because making electric car batteries cheaper to manufacture also reduces the overall price for consumers. If the battery performs as stated, then this is a very important breakthrough.
DBM's Lithium Metal Polymer battery is an innovation and a breakthrough which can make batteries last longer, charge a lot faster, and be manufactured cheaper. Imagine your favourite car which is all electric, I know I would like to buy such a car.
This battery technology, along with any other battery, can be applied to any potential vehicle, not only cars, but also lorries, and presumably motorbikes and many more. In the future, further innovations could be made which make the batteries charge even faster, last even longer, and last over many more charge cycles. And making the cars lighter will help at the same time.
Read the original article here.
it is an exciting news about all mobile vehicles run by electricity. Effecient battery technology will be clean and environment friendly.
ReplyDeleteThis looks great! Wonder how long it will take to filter down to market? These developments are fantastic but it will be a long way untill they have a real effect on the environment as most people will still be running the same old gas guzzlers for a long while to come!
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty cool... it's the sort of figure that would certainly make an electric car more than practical for myself (my own limits were something like 300km in 15 minutes of charging - do the first part of a 400-500k jaunt, stop at services for a break, car juices up whilst you go for a coffee, toilet stop and walk around).
ReplyDeleteHowever, your charge current is ONE MEGAWATT.
Which is about the power drain of a regular electric express train (not TGV...) at full power.
Even if you can safely transfer that level of power in a public setting (there'd probably be some significant magnetic and RF effects, unless very well insulated, even when short circuits and arcing are eliminated), can the car and battery really sink the amount of heat that would be generated? I was quite wary about whether even my 300k-in-15m idea was practical, and this is more than 4x the charge rate.
and, just to figure some other things out...
600km at 90km/h = 6h 40mins
(a pretty slow cruising speed, btw, unless you like following trucks for an entire working day)
100kWh divided over 6.67h = 15kW = 20hp
...which, actually, for once, is entirely realistic. Hmm. Sorry. I was doing those maths because I'm used to electric car makers fudging their figures something terrible. 20hp will get you up to 60mph or so in a reasonably aerodynamic/lightweight vehicle; the A2 is a bit taller than average (but, lighter), so I'd expect you'd have a bit of charge left over at the end of the 56mph journey, but not a great deal...
@Tahrey - Yeah I agree, I would be tempted to go for an electric car with that kind of performance, but 90 km/h is too slow (would prefer to go at 120 km/h myself ;) ). Yes, 1 MW to charge sounds unfortunately correct, it is a lot.
ReplyDelete@Tahrey - Sorry, that should say figure, not performance. Too bad I can't just correct previous comments.
ReplyDelete