High-voltage electric vehicle batteries for increased range and performance
CategoriesSustainable News

High-voltage electric vehicle batteries for increased range and performance

Spotted: Chinese startup Chilye, a developer of high-voltage battery systems for electric vehicles (EVs), has raised RMB 100 million (around €14.8 million) from a group of investors led by Xiaomi, one of the world’s largest smartphone makers.

Most EVs operate at 400 volts, but there is increasing interest in 800-volt systems. For example, in 2020, Porsche released its luxury “Taycan” model — the first EV from a major automaker to use an 800-volt battery.  

There are several potential benefits to higher voltage systems. They offer more range, lighter car weight, and better energy efficiency, and can also be charged more quickly using fast chargers. These potential advantages are persuading leading automakers to explore the technology, and Chilye claims to have secured clients that include ‘multiple mainstream automakers’.

Chilye’s new funding will be used to ramp-up commercial production of its high-voltage battery system. According to Technode, the company claimed earlier this year that it will have the annual production capacity to equip 3 million EVs with its products by mid-2022. 

Xiaomi’s investment in Chilye is part of a broader push by the consumer electronics giant to become a key player in the EV market. The company intends to invest further in domestic Chinese companies in the EV supply chain, and it also has plans to mass-produce its first consumer EV model in the first half of 2024.

Other innovations spotted by Springwise that aim to make EV technology more efficient include AI that helps city planners build EV charging networks, smart charging that reduces the carbon footprints of EVs, and new technology that could revolutionise EV charging infrastructure.  

Written By: Katrina Lane

Email: info@chilye.com   

Website: chilye.com

Reference

Ground-breaking new batteries for remote communities
CategoriesSustainable News

Ground-breaking new batteries for remote communities

Spotted: UK-based renewable energy and battery specialist AceOn has teamed up with battery pioneer AMTE Power to use next generation solar-powered energy storage units to bring electricity to remote sub-Saharan African communities. AceOn has developed the AceOnPES (portable energy storage) power unit which will run on sodium-ion battery cells produced by AMTE. 

While conventional lithium-ion batteries use raw materials—such as lithium and cobalt—that are in finite supply, sodium-based cells use sodium instead. This offers huge potential advantages, as sodium is plentiful almost everywhere and can be extracted using minimal energy. This could allow wider and cheaper battery manufacture.

Because they lack heavy metals, sodium batteries are also much easier to recycle, and their use would eliminate much of the risk of pollution from both mining and battery disposal. The two companies point out that sodium-ion batteries have huge potential for application in energy storage – where there is a need to vastly scale-up production of safe, stable battery technology to support the growth of renewable energy.

Mark Thompson, managing director of Telford-based AceOn, explains that the new battery chemistry can make global electrification more sustainable. “We’ve been championing sodium-based technology for years as a sustainable alternative to lithium-ion, and thanks to our partnership with AMTE, we can finally use it in our product… These batteries are the future.” 

Efficient and sustainable energy storage is vital for the large-scale use of renewable energy. At Springwise, we have recently covered innovations in this area such as a technology that yields almost pure graphite from used lithium-ion batteries, and an energy storage system located at the bottom of the sea. 

Written By: Lisa Magloff

Website: amtepower.com

Contact: amtepower.com/contact

Reference