German company Bosch’s current goal is to create a 50 kWh battery that weighs only 190 kilograms. Based on recent comments by a company researcher and how much money the company is funneling towards electric car battery research, Bosch is working very hard to achieve their goal. They predict that 15% of all cars sold by 2025 will have an electric power train.
If their prediction is correct, Bosch could dominate the auto battery market of the future. The company also recently bought Seeo a solid-state battery startup, which may or may not be related to their exploration of lighter batteries, according to CleanTechnica’s James Ayre.
The head of battery technology research and development, Dr Thorsten Ochs, explained that for electric vehicles to become ubiquitous in society, a mid-sized vehicle would require fifty-kilowatt hours of energy. With lead batteries, that would require 1.9 metric tons of material. That’s why lithium-ion technology is better; it can store up to three times the energy per kilogram.
Most electric auto batteries used right now weight 230 kilograms, but a 50 kWh one would weigh 380-600 kilograms.
They also promise their battery will also be able to reach a 75% charge in just 15 minutes.
According to the research team, they will be able to reduce the weight significantly just by improving lithium-ion technology and using lithium in the anode rather than graphite in order to increase the storage capacity.
The team will likely make many alterations. Hopefully they succeed.
Image (c) Bosch
It’s all trade-offs; weight, size, energy-density, power-density, longevity, cost, etc. Wonder what an all lithium electrode battery would cost and how long it will last.
I wish them all the luck they need to develop the product; I just hope it’s not another “unaffordium”, reserved for only the more expensive car producers.