Stellantis Seeks New EV Battery Free From Sketchy Materials

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Now that electrical autos have entrenched their place within the mobility market, bettering the sustainability profile of the EV battery is subsequent on the checklist. Stellantis has made some attention-grabbing strikes in that route over the previous couple of years, and it has simply leveled up its sport beneath a brand new partnership with CEA, the French Various Energies and Atomic Vitality Fee.​

Why Is The CEA Looking out For A New EV Battery?

When you’re questioning why a analysis establishment with “Atomic Energy” in its title is looking for a brand new, extra sustainable EV battery, that’s an excellent query. Nuclear vitality is a core component within the CEA’s mandate. Nevertheless, the company additionally covers renewable vitality applied sciences, and its present portfolio is targeted on combining the 2 sources in numerous methods for energy storage as well as power generation.

Since electrical autos run on electrical energy, vitality storage and energy technology property danger struggling the knock-on results of a world overrun with EV batteries in want of a cost. A brand new technology of resource-conserving batteries would assist easy out the kinks as extra drivers change to zero emission mobility, with out working into provide chain points posed by cobalt, amongst others.

As defined by CEA Vitality Division Head Philippe Stohr, the brand new partnership with Stellantis leverages the establishment’s 25+ years of expertise in lithium-ion battery research. “Our challenge is to speed up design and fabrication,” Stohr stated in a press assertion dated July 3.

“We know that battery technology is poised for change,” added  Stellantis Chief Engineering and Expertise Officer Ned Curic. “While we don’t know exactly how it will change, we are committed to be at the forefront of this transformation.”

Many Paths To The Excellent EV Battery

Curic additionally emphasised that the corporate has established an EV battery technique of “placing multiple bets and exploring various technologies,” together with analysis partnerships with different establishments.

It stays to be seen which establishments come out on prime. Or, maybe a number of new EV battery formulation will emerge within the Stellantis portfolio.

One clue surfaced on January 12, when the Stellantis Ventures arm of Stellantis signaled its curiosity in sodium-ion battery technology with a strategic funding within the French EV battery agency Tiamat, which spun off from the French Nationwide Centre for Scientific Analysis in 2017.

“Sodium-ion technology offers a lower cost per kilowatt-hour and is free of lithium and cobalt. Abundantly available sodium offers benefits in increased sustainability and material sovereignty,” Stellantis defined. Tiamat had earlier received a Stellantis Ventures award final 12 months, as one in a bunch of 11 “top-performing technology start-ups.”

100% Battery-Electrical Car Gross sales In 2030

The CEA and Tiamat relationships each assist Stellantis’s “Dare Forward” electrification plan for 2030. Additionally within the combine are two US corporations, the strong state EV battery innovator Factorial Energy and the California startup Lyten, which is growing a lithium-sulfur battery.

The Factorial hookup dates again to 2021, with a strategic funding from Stellantis Ventures. Final fall, Factorial introduced plans for increasing its facility in Massachusetts to launch its new solid state battery into manufacturing (see extra Factorial background here).

Lyten has additionally been on the transfer. Earlier this 12 months, the corporate introduced that it has shipped A samples of its new lithium-sulfur pouch cells to quite a few US and EU producers, together with Stellantis, for evaluation.

“This milestone further demonstrates Lyten’s global leadership in lithium-sulfur manufacturing, a battery chemistry with the potential to hold more than two times the energy density of lithium-ion and starts the clock for commercial evaluation and adoption by multiple industry leaders,” Lyten enthused in a press assertion dated Could 8.

Lyten firm additionally plans to ship cylinder-style cells for analysis later this 12 months, aiming at functions past the EV battery. Area, aerospace, drones, micromobility, protection and client electronics are all on the corporate’s to-do checklist.

A Higher EV Battery For The US Navy

CleanTechnica has been following the US military’s vehicle electrification planswith the Division of the Military within the lead resulting from its large, numerous fleet. It has been an extended, gradual slog however the tempo has ticked up in current months, partly as a result of the Biden administration has been deploying the ability of the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act to assist transfer issues alongside.

In January, for instance, Lyten secured a grant of $4 million from the US Division of Vitality, aimed toward addressing considerations over EV battery provide chains in addition to growing the vary of EV batteries.

“The DoE grant awards for lithium-sulfur follow the passage of National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law last month with bi-partisan support, which will prohibit the U.S. Defense Department from buying batteries produced by China’s largest manufacturers starting in October 2027,” Lyten defined.

“This ban reinforces the urgency to accelerate the development and rapid scale up of rechargeable cells with alternative battery chemistrieslike lithium-sulfur, that offer localized supply chains for strategic defense applications and high energy density to support mobility and transportation electrification,” the corporate added.

The US Navy’s Lengthy, Gradual Street To Electrification

In one other current signal of life, final September the Workplace of the Assistant Secretary of Protection tapped the College of Texas at Dallas for a $30 million undertaking aimed toward shepherding next-generation lithium-ion batteries into the market, with an emphasis on provide chain safety.

The three-year grant will assist a new energy storage R&D campus on the college, with an expectation of leveraging one other $200 million in personal capital. The brand new campus will assist the Protection Division’s SCALE (Scaling Capability and Accelerating Native Enterprises initiative, aimed toward smoothing the trail between vitality storage innovators and the business market.

“The SCALE initiative is built on robust research that indicates market pull is needed to transition innovative technologies into new domestic industrial base capability and capacity,” explains Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale, Assistant Secretary of Protection for Industrial Base Coverage.

Fascinating! If all goes in accordance with plan, the brand new campus will appeal to extra EV battery innovators to Texas, a state that has already attracted its justifiable share of curiosity from EV stakeholders.

One current instance is the solid state battery startup Solidion Expertise. One other instance is the startup Volcon, which has developed a military-capable model of its sporty electric ATV.

In different current information, earlier this 12 months the US Military introduced that Fort Cavazos in Texas is among the many first DoD amenities to put in Stage 2 EV charging stations at its residential housing models.

In one more indication that the popularity of electric vehicles is on the wax, not the wan, An Military-produced report on the undertaking indicated that lower costsimproved security and charging occasions in comparison with Stage 1 chargers, and the comfort of avoiding journeys to a gasoline station are all in play.

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Photograph (cropped): Stellantis provides one other establishment to its checklist of next-generation energy storage partners looking for the sustainable EV battery of the longer term (courtesy of Stellantis).