

They’ve even looked at the raw material supply chain, considering it expensive and difficult to source cobalt as an additive to Li-ion designs. Battery experts in the field have continually adjusted the technology to gain greater densities, including changing chemistries and modifying the designs. Energy density is directly related to the number of hours a battery can operate. Lithium-ion batteries, spurred by the growth in mobile phone, tablet, and laptop computer markets, have been pushed to achieve higher and higher energy densities. It’s important to note here that the quantity of Li-ion batteries used in EVs exceeds the volume of mobile and IT applications combined. Lithium-based (Li-ion) batteries dominate the consumer electronics market and have expanded their applications to electric vehicles (EVs). The leading chemistry for rechargeable batteries used in telecom, aviation, and rail applications is nickel-based (Ni-Cd, Ni-MH) batteries. They are suitable for long-term applications of five to twenty years, including metering, electronic toll collection, tracking, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Today, state-of-the-art primary battery technology is based on lithium metal, thionyl chloride (Li-SOCl2), and manganese oxide (Li-MnO2). Categorized as primary (single-use typically for long-term, low power applications) and secondary (rechargeable) batteries have seen one innovation after another as they attempt to provide more energy density than ever before. For the EV market, size and weight are as important as cycle life. While laboratories were working on upgrading battery technology, electronics technologies continued to advance more quickly – requiring ever-increasing amounts of energy and power.īut it wasn’t until electric vehicles (EVs) came onto the scene that manufacturers began to seriously consider the importance of batteries to provide greater range, higher reliability, and lower costs. Every technological advancement tended to put battery capabilities in the forefront. The increase in telecommunications satellites meant that battery weight was a factor. The need for greater energy densities came during the upswing in handheld devices, from industrial measuring tools to mobile phones. Battery research has been going on for years to increase energy density (the amount of energy in a given size and weight). Batteries have always been a critical design feature for everything from handheld tools to computers and mobile phones and from uninterruptible power supplies to satellites.
