New EV Battery Developments Add Range, Reduce Weight

Current lithium-ion battery technology is limited by physics and economics. Lithium-based batteries are heavy, expensive to produce and are relatively slow to charge. A new silicon nanowire anode technology developed by Amprius Technologies promises to deliver lithium-ion batteries with double the gravimetric and volumetric power density of current systems. The solution to the cost problem is to use an alternate battery chemistry. BYD battery business unit FinDreams plans to do just that with the first large-scale sodium ion battery production plant, planned for Jiangsu province in China. Sodium ion batteries are lower in performance, but are much more cost-effective compared to lithium alternatives. * * *Want to watch this podcast as a video? This Week in Engineering is available on engineering.com TV along with all of our other shows such as End of the Line, Designing the Future, Manufacturing the Future, and the Engineering Roundtable.