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Storing that vital spark
With the growth in the use of electric vehicles (EVs), the importance of improving battery technology becomes more pressing. Safety, charging times and travel range are the main concerns. The move away from liquid-based electrolyte batteries to solid state batteries was down to efficiency. Lead-acid batteries are susceptible to cold temperatures and are very heavy and bulky.
When EVs began to make their mark, manufacturers tried using nickel and metal hydride batteries as an alternative. The problems with these are that they are expensive, inefficient at high temperatures and discharge faster than other batteries. Lithium-ion batteries are the most popular now. They are lightweight, and less likely to overheat at high temperatures. They have long discharge time, and good ones can travel for 500 miles on a full charge.
Presently, Europe and UK car manufacturers are buying batteries from South Korea and China. The UK has set a target date of 2035 for the total ban on the sales of new diesel and petrol cars. Battery manufacturers need to catch up not just for this, but also to capture a substantial share of the expanding battery market.
The largest lithium-ion battery manufacturer in the UK is AESC based in Sunderland with a capacity of 1.8 gigawatt hours (GWh). A second gigafactory is…
