batteries
Better Place works with leading battery and vehicle manufacturers, like Renault, A123Systems and AESC, to develop lithium-ion batteries for EVs that are high-performing, recyclable, environmentally-friendly and safe.
The battery future
The lithium-ion battery industry is dominated by the consumer electronics industry but the forthcoming wave of EVs is changing the game. Made from nontoxic materials, today’s lithium-ion batteries have unprecedented safety. Today’s lithium-ion battery has high abuse tolerance, low heat evolution, stable cathode material, and an intelligent pack design that ensure consumer safety. A lithium-ion battery can also be recycled with minimal environmental impact. More than 95% of the battery materials can be recovered and reused. Despite some concerns of availability of lithium, the industry universally accepts that lithium supplies will continue to be abundant, especially if recycling infrastructure is scaled up.
The billions of dollars invested into lithium-ion battery research and development, with a focus on automotive EV applications, will lead to further advances in battery performance (including power, range, charge time, lifetime, and cost). Better Place is chemistry-agnostic and willing to adopt new battery technologies as they emerge; however, lithium-ion batteries are the leading chemistry for EVs today.
Performance & range
Older generations of EV batteries were characterized by two major problems - providing short driving range and offering limited performance. Today's lithium-ion batteries can store significantly more energy than and generate twice the power per unit volume as older battery technologies. These improvements in storage capacity and power availability are critical in maximizing the range of a vehicle. Now, a 24 kWh lithium-ion battery (about 200 kg/440 lbs) in a competitively priced medium-sized sedan provides a range of about 160 kilometers (100 miles) on a single charge.
Charge time
We are all familiar with the two ways to continue using battery-powered devices when the battery runs low - either plug in and recharge or replace the battery with a charged one (if you have a spare). With EVs, much the same applies, although charging becomes slightly more complicated because different rates of charging mean charging can take more or less time depending on the type (and it is impossible to drive a car when it's plugged in).
For high volume EV adoption, people need a way to extend their range in less than 10 minutes - and the only way to do this is by switching batteries
However, the majority of charging will be done when cars are stationary for an extended period of time, so we will work with customers to provide charge spots where their cars are typically parked: at home, work, in parking lots and on streets.
There are two basic types of charging.
In most cases, normal charging from the vast majority of charge spots will be what is referred to as Level II charging. which delivers about 16 miles of driving energy per hour of charging. Given that a vehicle battery can be fully recharged in 4 - 8 hours, if a driver plugs in an EV at night or at work, he/she will wake up to a fully charged battery in the morning. Off-peak (nighttime) charging is ideal for both consumers and the grid since energy demand is lowest (and energy is cheapest), the ratio of renewable energy to non-renewables is commonly highest, and, if managed correctly, the need to invest in grid infrastructure and additional electricity generation is minimized.
The other type of charging is quick charging, providing a recharge to 80% state of charge in 30 minutes. 30-minute quick charge spots are more expensive to build and deploy and present challenges to the grid, but can be practical for certain situations. Fast charging (<10-minute full charge) is another technology under discussion about but it is currently infeasible due to cost, technology and flexibility considerations.
Battery cost & lifetime
The cost of lithium-ion batteries has come down by over 75% in the past decade, creating a cost-effective, high-performance solution for EVs. The batteries are expected to perform for over 8 years and 2,000 recharges. If each charge gets 100 miles, the battery is projected to last 200,000 miles.