The Megawatt Charging System (MCS), a new charging standard for heavy-duty EVs that industry experts call a game-changer for electric trucks, is in the final stages of standardization, and is expected to enter the implementation phase this year. Automakers and EVSE manufacturers are busily putting the new system through its paces.
In the latest testing milestone, developers at Mercedes-Benz Trucks successfully charged a prototype of the eActros 600 at a charging station with an output of one megawatt (1,000 kilowatts) at the company’s development and testing center in Wörth am Rhein, Germany.
The engineers plan further trials of the communications interface between vehicle and charging station, defined as part of MCS standardization, as well as ongoing development of prototype components. The eActros 600 is planned to go into series production by the end of 2024. In addition to CCS charging at up to 400 kW, the eActros 600 will enable MCS charging at a full 1,000 kilowatts, once it becomes available, and the charging technology can be retrofitted.
Mercedes-Benz Trucks durchbricht Schallmauer beim elektrischen Laden Mercedes-Benz Trucks breaks the sound barrier with electric charging
The eActros 600 sports a battery capacity of more than 600 kWh, and a new efficient electric drive axle developed in-house. It boasts a range of 500 km, which will enable it to travel some 1,000 km per day with an intermediate charging stop during the legally prescribed driver breaks, even without megawatt charging.
Around 60 percent of long-distance journeys of Mercedes-Benz Trucks customers in Europe are shorter than 500 km.
Rainer Müller-Finkeldei, Head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks Product Engineering: “Our developers have put the newly defined MCS standard into the e-truck in the shortest of times with full charging capacity—an outstanding feat of engineering. Customers placing high demands on range and vehicle availability will benefit in particular from charging at 1,000 kilowatts.”
Peter Ziegler, Head of E-Charging Components, Mercedes-Benz Trucks: “The first successful megawatt charging test with our e-truck is an enormous step forward. We are now working at full speed to take the MCS technology in our eActros 600 to series maturity.”
Norway-headquartered Vianode, a manufacturer of synthetic graphite for battery anodes, has released the results of a life cycle assessment (LCA) of its planned industrial-scale production.
A typical EV battery pack contains around 70 kg of graphite, which represents up to 40% of battery cell emissions, based on average present-day production. Vianode says the results represent a potential CO2 emission reduction of more than 90% compared to conventional fossil-based production, according to the latest LCA results, internal company analysis data, and specialist information provider Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.
The LCA is a scope 1, 2 and 3 study—from the point of resource extraction to the factory gate—of the prospective production of battery-grade synthetic anode graphite at Vianode’s planned large-scale site. Seven internationally accepted impact categories were considered: climate change, water scarcity footprint, land use, acidification potential, particulate matter, fossil resource use, and mineral and metal resource use. The study has been certified according to the ISO-14040 and ISO-14044 standards.
Vianode plans to open its first full-scale production plant at Herøya, Norway, in the second half of 2024 and scale up to produce high-performance anode graphite solutions for 3 million EVs annually by 2030 across Europe and North America.
“Vianode’s ambition is to change the way batteries and battery materials are produced,” said Vianode CEO Burkhard Straube. “In addition to leading sustainability metrics, our solutions offer high-performance properties that enable faster charging, longer service life and better recyclability of EVs.”
BMW of North America has added Shell Recharge Solutions as a second eMobility provider, which will allow customers to access Shell Recharge, ChargePoint, EVgo, EVConnect and Blink charging stations through the My BMW app.
Payments for all these providers are automatically processed in the app, which eliminates the need to create separate accounts, and use separate apps, for each individual charging provider.
BMW Charging’s networks in the US and Canada include about 100,000 public charging points.
“Charging is an important part of creating a positive customer experience for the owners of electric vehicles,” said Shaun Bugbee, Executive VP, Operations, BMW of North America.
Delays in getting electrical service hooked up represent one of the biggest roadblocks to building more EV charging hubs, and several industry insiders have told Charged that a major reason for those delays is a shortage of transformers.
Hitachi Energy, one of the world’s largest transformer manufacturers, is increasing production to meet the massive demand for transformers driven by the EV and renewable energy transition. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that distribution transformer capacity may need to increase by up to 260% by 2050 to meet projected demand.
The company recently announced plans to invest $1.5 billion to ramp up production, in addition to $3 billion the company announced in October 2023 for transformer manufacturing.
Hitachi also announced an investment of around $180 million in a new 30,000-square-meter transformer factory in the Vaasa region of Finland. The new plant is slated to come online in 2027.
“The investments announced today are part of an overall effort to strengthen and optimize our manufacturing footprint, both globally and within North America,” Steve McKinney, Senior VP and head of Hitachi Energy’s transformer business in North America, told Electrek. “Hitachi Energy’s transformer facility expansions include the ongoing project in South Boston, Virginia, and other recently completed projects at Jefferson City, Missouri, and Bland, Virginia, among others, and additional projects in the region will be announced soon.”
NovaCHARGE has expanded its cloud power management capabilities by introducing Virtual Circuit Technology (VCT) to distribute the load from EV chargers.
VCT provides multi-level power management for utilities, fleets, multi-dwelling units, and any other location with limited available power to control the use of open standard OCPP-compliant chargers using ChargeUP, its charging platform management system.
The technology provides the ability to automatically manage how EV chargers use the power available across different locations throughout the day, allowing more vehicles to charge in places with limited power. It aims to ensure that power demand from the chargers will not exceed the infrastructure’s limitations so that the infrastructure is not overloaded, but power is balanced across the grid as vehicles enter and leave the charging site.
VCT can manage power across multiple configurations, including where EVs are using a local bank of chargers connected to one panel; where vehicles are connected across multiple panels in a building; where vehicles are connected across a campus with a common utility transformer; and where EVs are connected across utility substation feeders.
“With VCT, we are ensuring that more vehicles may charge, and that no EV driver is left stranded due to a lack of infrastructure access. We continue to partner with large utilities, like OUC, on EV charging innovation and are focused on executing our trial of VCT this summer,” said Oscar Rodriguez, CEO of NovaCHARGE.
Green Watt Power, a division of Powerland Technology, has added 8 new models to its Diamond Series of ruggedized, fully potted AC chargers, which are designed to serve low-voltage EV applications, including material handling, motorcycles, scooters, forklifts, golf carts and RVs.
The EVC1000 Diamond Series supports charging of 72 V and 48 V Li-ion batteries at power levels of 750 W to 1,800 W. This 1 kW charger can handle inputs from 90-264 VAC, with a frequency range of 47 to 63 Hz. It includes a typical Power Factor Correction (PFC) of 0.98.
The charger can be controlled via CAN communication. It features colored LED status indicators. The set of self-protection features includes OVP, OCP, SCP, OTP, RPP and UVLO. The turn-on delay at full load is 5 seconds maximum.
The EVC1000 is designed to meet UL/CSA62368 and EN60335 safety standards. The case temperature range is -40 to 80° C (60° C with handle) and the storage range is -40 to 85° C.
The Diamond Series comes in On-Board and Off-Board versions, with or without a handle, and in connector or flying lead versions. Each unit includes a fan that turns on at high temperatures.
Green Watt Power can modify the unit as needed to meet customer requirements.
Nissan, Japan’s third-biggest automaker by volume, plans to begin producing solid-state batteries for EVs at scale by early 2029, and will also use Tesla-style gigacasting machines in order to increase efficiency and drive down costs on its future EV models.
Solid-state batteries are expected to deliver faster charging and longer lifespans than current Li-ion designs. Even as some automakers begin to deploy them in limited numbers, battery suppliers such as Samsung SDI and CATL disagree over their potential.
Nissan says it will develop solid-state batteries at a new pilot plant in Yokohama before building up production capacity. The company expects to make its first solid-state batteries at the site in 2025, and hopes to produce 100 MWh worth per year starting in 2028.
The automaker also announced plans to use heavy-force machines to produce the rear floors of EVs, a process that it hopes will lower manufacturing costs by 10% and bring down the weight of components by 20%. Nissan has used casting boards for structural parts of air conditioners for over 15 years at its Tochigi plant.
The automaker considered several new processes for manufacturing car bodies, Hideyuki Sakamoto, Executive VP for Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management, told Reuters. “In the end, we decided to use a 6,000-ton gigacasting machine to make the rear body structure of cars using aluminum casting.”
Nissan plans to launch 30 new models over the next three years. Sixteen of these will be electrified, including eight BEVs and four PHEVs.
The automaker says it hopes to bring down the cost of the next generation of plug-in vehicles by 30% to make them competitive with ICE models by 2030.
As the Megawatt Charging System (MCS), a new charging standard for heavy-duty EVs, enters the final stages of standardization, automakers and EVSE manufacturers are busily putting the new system through its paces. Commercial implementations of MCS, which industry experts are calling a game-changer for electric trucks, are expected to begin later this year.
The latest testing milestone was announced by Siemens Smart Infrastructure, which completed its first successful one-megawatt charge, in a pilot using a prototype Siemens MCS charging station and “a long-haul prototype eTruck from a well-established OEM.”
Siemens has introduced a prototype of the SICHARGE Megawatt Charging System, which consists of multiple SICHARGE UC150 power cabinets, a switching matrix and a customized MCS dispenser. The switching matrix bundles the output power of the charging stations and, depending on requirements, directs power to the MCS dispenser. Siemens says an output of around one MW could enable a typical e-truck battery to be charged from 20 to 80 percent in about 30 minutes.
Markus Mildner, CEO eMobility, Siemens Smart Infrastructure: “Especially in long-distance transport, electric trucks and coaches will need fast MCS during the legally prescribed driving time break. To ensure nationwide distribution of this, various requirements must be met including on the governmental side. However, the successful test brings us a big step forward on the technology side.”
Adamas Intelligence data shows that 408,214 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) were deployed globally in new passenger EV batteries last year, up by 40% from 2022.
Europe and the Americas accounted for 40% of global deployment, rising by 38% to 163,423 tons in 2023. Across the three continents, Tesla took the top spot with 44,757 tonnes of LCE deployed across its S, 3, X and Y model lineup, nearly as much as the next five brands combined and an increase of 34% over 2022.
Volkswagen came in second in the Americas and Europe, deploying 11,750 tonnes of LCE in 2023, up by 39% year on year. The third and fourth largest lithium consumers in 2023 were Mercedes and BMW. Mercedes deployed 10,051 tonnes, an increase of 53% compared to 2022, while BMW’s LCE deployment rose by 54% to 10,016 tonnes. Rounding out the top five was Volvo. The Swedish marque, owned by China’s Geely since 2010, put 1,168 tonnes of LCE onto roads across Europe and the Americas in its EVs sold last year, representing an expansion of 36% compared to 2022.
Lithium deployment is highly concentrated, as the top five deployed a combined 86,543 tonnes of LCE, representing 53% of overall lithium consumption in the regions in 2023.
Dry coating of lithium-ion batteries has the potential to revolutionize battery production through a reduced solvent, energy, and footprint demand. However, dry coated electrodes suffer from poor adhesion between the dry film and current collector that leads to the demand of a pre-coating. In this webinar, we will discuss how carbon coatings of current collectors can enable dry battery manufacturing and improve battery cell performance.
Key takeaways:
Operating principles of conductive coatings in battery cells
The essential role of conductive coatings in dry-coated batteries
Insights into slurry-based vs dry-coated electrodes
This webinar will be hosted by CHARGED on Wednesday, May 29th, at 11 am US EST.
The directors of Australian fast charger manufacturer Tritium have declared the company as well as three of its Australian subsidiaries—Tritium, Tritium Holdings and Tritium Nominee—insolvent and called in voluntary administration, according to a statement filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
“The Company’s other subsidiaries will continue to operate outside the voluntary administration,” the SEC filing stated.
The company stated on April 11 that it had received a warning from the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York where its shares were listed that it no longer met the requirements to retain its listing.
Lenders have appointed a receiver to take control of the company’s assets and seek buyers.
Tritium was one of the early leaders in the EV charging infrastructure rollout, reaching a valuation of $2 billion with its Nasdaq listing in 2022. But there were signs of trouble as it closed its Brisbane factory and moved its production to its US base in Tennessee last year. The company said in November that it had a fleet of more than 14,500 chargers across 47 countries.
Toray Industries, a Japanese performance chemical manufacturer, has developed an ion-conductive polymer membrane that it says delivers 10 times the ion conductivity of its predecessors.
The new polymer membranes offer ion conductivity through hopping conduction. This mechanism enables lithium ions to traverse between interacting sites within polymer membranes, jumping across sites. The membranes remain non-porous. Toray estimates that enhancing the hopping site structure and designing a new polymer with more hopping sites has delivered an ionic conductivity in the 10-⁴ S/cm range for a hopping-conductive polymer film. It confirmed that the polymer film functions effectively as a protective film on lithium metal surfaces to extend the service lives of batteries using lithium metal lithium anodes.
Hopping conduction
Joint research with Professor Nobuyuki Imanishi of the Graduate School of Engineering at Mie University verified the achievement of 100 charge-discharge cycles for the first time in a dual-component, lithium-air battery employing this polymer membrane as a separator.
“This new offering could accelerate the deployment of solid-state batteries, air batteries, and other lithium metal batteries, to expand the cruising ranges of EVs, industrial drones, urban air mobility systems and other transportation modes,” the company said.
US-based EO Charging, which provides EV infrastructure and services for van, truck and bus fleets, has launched its Genius Fleet hardware and software bundle to simplify depot electrification for commercial vans, trucks, and school bus fleets.
Genius Fleet provides fully managed charging capabilities by combining the EO Cloud charge management platform, 24/7/365 monitoring and remote fix solutions, ongoing operations and maintenance (O&M) support and an EO Genius Level 3 19.2 kW commercial grade charging station.
EO handles all charger commissioning onto EO Cloud, monitors the chargers to address any issues before they affect business operations and offers optional on-site services to optimize the charger.
“The benefits of transitioning to an electric fleet are not without cost and project management burdens for many school bus and commercial fleets,” said John Walsh, President of EO Charging, Americas. “EO’s new Genius Fleet solution aims to remove these barriers, letting the customer focus on their core competency while enabling EO to provide lifecycle electrification services that meet their unique needs.”
Canada-based EV charging station manufacturer and network operator FLO has launched a new home EV charger.
The company offers three options for the FLO Home charger, which is available with a choice of a J3400 connector (also known as NACS or the Tesla connector) or a J1772 connector.
FLO Home X3 includes an industrial-grade thermoplastic enclosure and features a 50 A/12 kW output.
FLO Home X6 features a heavy-duty aluminum enclosure and a detachable cable holster for additional flexibility.
FLO Home X8 offers higher power output and ruggedness for high-performance cars and trucks. It features an 80 A/19.2 kW output and a detachable holster.
FLO’s chargers feature a 25 ft cable and multiple wiring, cable management and pedestal options. Embedded heat sensors in the vehicle-side connector and the dwelling-side plug help detect overheating issues. Smart charging via Wi-Fi allows owners to manage access via the FLO app.
“Buying a house and a car are often the most significant purchases for a family,” said Nathan Yang, FLO Chief Product Officer. “We engineered the new generation of FLO Home chargers to help protect these investments and future-proof EV charging whether it’s today’s crossover or tomorrow’s heavy-duty electric pickup truck.”
Van and truck operators in the UK can monetize their EV chargers by pairing them with battery energy storage to participate in the National Grid’s new Demand Flexibility Service (DFS), according to storage systems provider Connected Energy.
The DFS aims to incentivize businesses to reduce their demand on the grid during peak periods each winter from November to March. National Grid will designate at least 12 periods of exceptionally high demand known as “events,” during which it will pay participants to stop drawing energy from the network. Each event could last up to four hours, and businesses will get paid for the length of time they participate and the amount by which they reduce their energy consumption.
A fleet depot or truck dealership requires high-capacity chargers, typically 150 kW or 350 kW, making them well suited to participate in load reduction as they are more likely to charge at set times. Pairing EV chargers with a battery energy storage system (BESS) would allow fleets to charge their vehicles while getting paid for reducing the amount of grid energy they consume during peak periods.
“This could be a real game-changer for fleets,” said Nigel Dent, Head of Sales at Connected Energy. “The modeling we’ve already seen for truck depots and HGV service centers indicates that companies could earn up to £15,000 a year by using a BESS to participate in DFS and other schemes. You can continue to charge the vehicle for that hour without drawing from the grid, meaning you can claim under DFS without impacting your operations.”
US-based NovaCHARGE, which provides utility-grade EV charging solutions, has expanded its fleet management software to help effectively dispatch drivers and optimize off-site charging.
NovaCHARGE Fleet Director combines vehicle management, a charging station locater, and worker management to efficiently dispatch drivers to move vehicles as needed, reducing costs by making use of existing offsite charging facilities such as EV charging hubs. Fleet Director tracks all locations, chargers, vehicles, and workers registered within the system, and uses that information to assign jobs and tasks to nearby available workers to ensure optimal workflow and vehicle charging.
The software can be used as a standalone solution or alongside the company’s ChargeUP charging platform management system. NovaCHARGE’s fleet software platform is designed to work with a broad range of charging stations, including non-OCPP compliant and Tesla chargers, and any EV model. The fleet management suite can fully integrate with the tools fleet operators already use to run their operations such as third-party telematics, route planning, dispatch and maintenance systems.
Panasonic Energy has signed a binding term sheet and initiated discussions with New Delhi-headquartered IndianOil to potentially form a joint venture to manufacture cylindrical lithium-ion batteries in India.
Driven by anticipated expansion of the country’s battery demand, the two companies will conduct a feasibility study to finalize details of their collaboration by summer.
The country’s largest state-owned oil production company, IndianOil has in recent years been developing clean energy sources, including solar power, biofuels and hydrogen.
Through its partnership with IndianOil, Panasonic Energy intends to contribute to the establishment of a complete supply chain ecosystem in India and to the growth of its lithium-ion battery industry by enhancing cell technology and creating domestic demand for raw materials and new entrants.
Hyundai and Kia have signed an agreement with Indian lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery manufacturer Exide Energy Solutions to equip the two companies’ upcoming EV models in the Indian market with locally produced batteries.
Established in 2022, Exide Energy Solutions is a wholly owned subsidiary of Exide Industries, which has 75 years of experience in the production of lead-acid batteries. The new company was formed to manufacture lithium-ion cells, modules and packs that incorporate multiple chemistries and form factors.
“India is a key market for vehicle electrification, due in part to the government’s carbon neutrality goals, which makes securing cost competitiveness through localized battery production crucial,” said Heui Won Yang, President and Head of Hyundai Motor and Kia’s R&D Division.
GROB is a pioneer of electromobility: The manufacturing technology and process expertise of the Bavarian family-owned company are used by more than two-thirds of all suppliers of EVs. GROB has earned this market leadership not only through courage and foresight, but also through high quality standards. With its comprehensive portfolio of quality solutions, ZEISS helps to always achieve these standards and noticeably increase productivity.
Electrification is a key economic and ecological success factor – especially in the mobility sector. It is often said that Germany has been left behind internationally when it comes to electromobility. But at GROB, a supplier of manufacturing and automation systems, they only smile at such statements. Martin Negele is head of quality assurance at the long-established Mindelheim-based company. He says: “At GROB, we recognized several years ago that the future belongs to e-drives.”
“At that time, this was still a controversial topic, but we took the plunge.” This has paid off: “Today, we have a 67 percent market share in stator technology alone. If you look at an e-drive train, it is very likely that our production technology is behind it,” Martin Negele explains. GROB earns this leading role mainly by striving for uncompromising quality. To ensure this, the company relies on a close partnership with ZEISS.
With its Industrial Quality Solutions division, ZEISS is the only provider to offer a complete portfolio of state-of-the-art quality solutions: “We combine microscopic, tactile and optical measurement technology to achieve optimum results”, says Martin Negele. This means that even the production of a demanding part such as a stator can be fully covered – with maximum certainty and productivity.
Stator: Challenges in manufacturing and quality assurance
In addition to many other advantages, the drive technology of EVs impresses with its fundamentally simple design: In an electric motor, a rotating electromagnet, the rotor, turns in the magnetic field of an immovable permanent magnet, the stator. However, the production of these components, especially the stator, is anything but simple – even if, roughly speaking, it only consists of a sheet metal housing, the laminated core, and induction coils made of coated copper. Even with such a “simple” component, however, there are high performance requirements today. For this reason, automotive manufacturers are also increasingly using hairpin technology, i.e. plug-in coils, instead of winding wire coils for their stators.
Complete scan with ZEISS ScanBox.
Hairpin coils have major advantages, including higher motor performance combined with lower weight. And hairpins can be mass-produced more easily and efficiently – an important aspect in view of the rising demand for EVs.
“As advantageous as hairpins are as a finished product, their manufacture is demanding, especially when it comes to bending and welding”, explains Georg Knoll. Today, the experienced welding engineer oversees the welding processes at GROB and manages the workshop testing laboratory. “That’s why we have to constantly check from incoming goods to the finished assembled part: How is the bending behavior of the wire, does the geometry fit, does the insulation layer of paper sit between the hairpins and the sheet metal package, do the welds fit?” Because undetected defects can lead to loss of performance or inoperability, and in the worst case even to fatal damage to the entire drive.
Quality solutions for the complete manufacturing process
“Our claim is that we deliver a top manufacturing process to our customers, and our top priority is uncompromising quality,” says Martin Negele. “That’s why we also pay attention to quality assurance solutions in the production process, which meaningfully safeguard every single step. In this way, we always provide our customers with the certainty of consistently high quality.” A decisive focus is on the copper wire from which the hairpins are bent. On receipt of the goods, a tensile test is first carried out, then a cross-section of the wire is analyzed under the microscope with the aid of a metallographically ground sample. The visual inspection provides information about homogeneity and abnormalities on the surface, especially about the condition of the insulation coatings – aspects such as the thickness and size of the coating layer, dimensional accuracy, and deviations from the CAD model.
Tactile quality control on the ZEISS PRISMO verity.
“It is essential for the manufacturing process that we see how the coiled wire behaves when we uncoil it for further processing, but also in terms of reverse bending behavior,” says Martin Negele. “Only with this knowledge can we guarantee consistently good results.” In the next step, the wire is bent into hairpins and the result is checked tactilely and optically on a multi-sensor coordinate measuring machine to ensure dimensional accuracy and homogeneity even when ready for assembly. Once the hairpins have been joined in the stack of sheets, further inspection steps follow: The welded ends of the hairpins are inspected with a computer tomograph. “As an experienced welding engineer, this is of course particularly important to me that we do a clean job here,” says Georg Knoll. “We have to be able to detect pores above a certain size or number so that we can adjust our processes accordingly.”
Standard from ZEISS used leads to 30 percent higher productivity
A glance into the measuring room – a hall of impressive size – reveals a clear brand preference in quality assurance technology: one ZEISS machine stands next to the other. As coordinate measuring machines, GROB relies on ZEISS PRISMO – one of the most precise of its kind. ZEISS ScanBox functions as an automated optical 3D measuring machine – it simultaneously enables high process reliability and a high throughput. And GROB also relies on proven ZEISS technology for microscopy with the ZEISS Axio Imager, an open microscope system for automated materials research. “With only few exceptions, we consistently rely on solutions from ZEISS,” explains Martin Negele.
“And there are several reasons for this: First, hardly any other supplier offers its industrial customers such a high level of service and application understanding. That simply convinces us time and again in the purchasing phase. And: No other supplier offers such a comprehensive portfolio with which we can cover an entire process such as the production of a stator.” The fact that almost all the devices in the measuring room come from ZEISS is not an end in itself, but has tangible advantages, emphasizes Martin Negele: “The uniform ecosystem saves us training effort and makes it easier for our employees to operate the different solutions. And it makes workload planning more flexible and efficient.”
As a result, our productivity has increased by 30 percent.
Georg Knoll adds: “And when our customers see our high-quality equipment from ZEISS, there are no discussions at all about quality claims or measurement values. They know that we employ state of the art solutions; after all, most of them have ZEISS equipment themselves.”
Technology leaders work together on the future of e-mobility technology
Thanks to the long-standing partnership, a relationship of trust has been established between GROB and ZEISS that goes beyond a mere supplier-customer relationship. GROB is also a pilot customer for new quality technologies from ZEISS before they are officially launched on the market, and supports their development with feedback. “This gives us access not only to the current state of the art in quality assurance solutions, but also helps shape them,” says Martin Negele.
“This fits in with our claim that we want to stay one step ahead of our customers, who are already operating at an extraordinarily high level, when it comes to quality. This is particularly important with new and emerging technologies such as e-motors or batteries – there is a lot to be gained for the pioneers, but only if they deliver quality. With ZEISS as our partner, we have the certainty of always being able to keep up with the leaders.”
EV battery manufacturing company Samsung SDI has announced a suite of battery technologies, including fast charging and ultra-long life batteries, as well as its roadmap for mass production of all-solid-state batteries (ASBs).
Samsung SDI plans to mass-produce 900 Wh/L solid-state batteries using its solid electrolyte and anode-less technologies, the latter of which enables higher cathode capacity. The design’s energy density is 40% higher than P5, Samsung SDI’s prismatic battery in production.
Samsung SDI has also unveiled its ultra-fast charging technology, which can reach 80% charge from 8% in 9 minutes by optimizing lithium-ion transfer path and enabling low resistance. The company aims to develop the technology to mass production by 2026. Samsung SDI also plans to create and mass-produce a battery that has a 20-year lifespan by 2029; cell-to-pack (CTP) technology for prismatic cells, which reduces the number of components by more than 35% and the weight by 20%; and its “no thermal propagation” technology, a safety feature that prevents propagation of thermal runaway in the event of a fire or impact.
“Our preparations for mass-producing next-generation products of various form factors such as an all-solid-state battery are well underway,” said Yoon-ho Choi, President of Samsung SDI.
Adhesives giant Avery Dennison has introduced new electrode fixing tapes for use in the assembly of EV batteries. The new products are “the latest addition to the company’s portfolio of functional bonding and protection tapes engineered to make EV batteries safer, more efficient and easier to assemble.”
Electrode fixing tapes represent a highly specialized category of adhesive tapes. They are used to bind multilayer electrode constructions consisting of current collector foils, anode and cathode material and separator films in EV battery cells.
Avery’s new electrode fixing tapes are available with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP) plastic facestocks. The PP facestock is chemically inert to prevent self-discharge due to DMT redox shuttle.
The new electrode fixing tapes feature electrolyte-compatible acrylic adhesives, and sport a highly visible green color. Various widths are available on plastic cores. They are manufactured in the United States, and are fully compliant with the Inflation Reduction Act.
“Our electrode fixing tapes build on our decades of success in supporting the needs of OEMs and automotive suppliers with a wide range of functional bonding and protection tapes,” said Scott Krusinski, Market Manager Energy Storage, Automotive, Avery Dennison Performance Tapes North America. “In particular, our portfolio helps EV manufacturers solve key challenges, such as reducing flammability, boosting dielectric strength and optimizing design and assembly.”
US-based Ideal Power has received a purchase order for its Bidirectional, Bipolar Junction Transistor (B-TRAN) semiconductor power switch from an unnamed power semiconductor and power electronics firm.
The customer purchased B-TRAN devices and a circuit breaker evaluation board, and is collaborating with Ideal Power on developing a solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB) design for its launch of a multi-year DC power distribution system program.
B-TRAN is designed for EVs, EV charging, renewable energy, energy storage, data centers, solid-state circuit breakers and other industrial and military applications.
The technology provides lower conduction losses, lower costs, and bidirectionality compared to electromechanical breakers and IGBT and silicon carbide MOSFET-based SSCBs, according to Ideal. B-TRAN’s symmetric bidirectional operation reduces the number of components required for an application by 75% compared to a conventional bidirectional switch utilizing IGBTs and diodes. Its higher efficiency reduces heat generation, requiring a smaller surface area to dissipate heat and allowing OEMs to make smaller products.
“This symmetric operation provides a strong competitive advantage in bidirectional applications, which are growing rapidly as transportation electrifies and power generation shifts to renewable energy coupled with energy storage,” the company said.
US EV charger installer Qmerit has announced a new suite of services, initially intended for EVSE makers and commercial charge point operators (CPOs). The new offerings include on-demand repairs, warranty support, coverage of equipment parts, and preventative and predictive maintenance.
The new services are intended to help tackle consumer concerns documented in an August report by J.D. Power about the reliability of charging infrastructure; these concerns remain a hindrance to wider EV adoption.
Qmerit’s Electrification 2030 white paper recommended prioritizing private business and residential charging, and previewed such emerging technologies as the Open Charge Point Interface (OCPI), which will enable remote diagnosis and solution of some charging issues.
Qmerit’s new charger maintenance services will provide a technological platform integrated into existing CRM and/or work order management systems and a national network of certified electricians and technicians.
“This is about more than maintaining equipment—it’s about building and sustaining the confidence of American consumers in EVs and charging,” said Qmerit CEO and founder Tracy K. Price.
Competition is good, but standardization is good too. As Tesla’s North American Charging Standard gradually becomes a true standard, drivers of Teslas and other EVs have more and more options for charging their NACS-capable EVs.
The latest alternative to a Tesla-branded charger comes from EV charger manufacturer Emporia. The company’s new NACS Level 2 EV Charger “combines power, design, and functionality comparable to a Tesla charger at a more affordable price.”
The Emporia NACS Level 2 Charger is compatible with the Tesla charge port door, so users can conveniently open the door via a button on the connector. The charger comes with a wall-mounted holster for cable storage.
Emporia chargers are designed to be durable, and are suitable for both indoor and outdoor installations. Users can manage charging using Emporia’s mobile app, which enables them to customize charging settings, monitor progress, and manage schedules remotely.
The Emporia NACS Level 2 Charger seamlessly integrates with the Emporia energy management ecosystem, which enables users to automate energy usage, charge during optimal off-peak hours, and prioritize the use of excess solar power for charging.
Emporia’s recently-launched installation marketplace offers free estimates based on the client’s location, partnerships with vetted installers and special pricing.
“This is a very exciting time in the EV charging industry,” said Emporia CEO Shawn McLaughlin. “As one of the first manufacturers to market with an NACS charger since Tesla published the specification, Emporia is at the forefront of providing cutting-edge solutions. Most car manufacturers have announced they will adopt this standard within the next 2-3 years.”
Austrian technology firm Easelink and Dutch manufacturer NXP Semiconductors have jointly developed a positioning system for automated EV charging based on ultra-wide band (UWB) technology.
The system integrates UWB—a wireless technology that securely, precisely, and efficiently estimates the relative positions of two electronic devices—to help bring a vehicle into the optimal position for fully automated charging using Easelink’s Matrix Charging.
During automated Matrix Charging, the connector is lowered from the vehicle underbody near the front axle onto the charging pad in the parking space, enabling the built-in UWB modules to measure the distance between the two in real time using time of flight measurements. The exact charging position is shown to the driver on a display inside the vehicle, and the charging process starts immediately after confirmation by clicking on the charging symbol.
As part of the eTaxi Austria automated charging project, Matrix Charging pads were installed directly at taxi stands in late 2023. These charge the EVs automatically, without the need for taxi drivers to leave their vehicles or make extra trips to charging points. The project will eventually see 60 Hyundai Ioniq 5 and VW ID.4 e-taxi models equipped with Matrix Charging, with access to 60 charging pads across eight locations in Vienna and two locations in Graz.
“We are working together to seamlessly integrate our UWB technology into intelligent, precise, and efficient mobility applications. The extensive application portfolio ranges from digital car keys to position detection for intelligent and automated charging of electric cars,” said Michael Leitner, GM of Smart Car Access at NXP Semiconductors Austria.
Automotive company Sumitomo Rubber has developed a new simulation technique called Tire Aerodynamic Simulation, which is used in the process of tire development to visualize the airflow around the tire of a running vehicle
This simulation will help to develop a tire shape that optimizes aerodynamic performance and contributes to lowering the electricity consumption in a next-generation EV tire to be launched in 2027. In EVs, which cause almost no energy loss due to heat, around 34% to 37% of the energy loss is attributed to the tires, if rolling resistance is included with air resistance.
Also, the company claims to have developed a new simulation technique that changes the shapes of the lettering and fine texture on the sidewall while they are rotating with the pattern. In comparison with the results of a wind tunnel experiment, which was conducted with an actual vehicle to confirm the accuracy of the simulation, the EV tire with a decreased airflow trend behind the tire and less unevenness on the sidewall showed lower air resistance values than a standard tire.
Sidewall aerodynamic simulation that can accommodate the lettering and fine texture on the sidewall
“Adopting this technique yields improved tire performance with maximized aerodynamic characteristics, leading to reduced aerodynamic drag and electricity consumption for an EV,” the company stated.
Polarization in DC Contactors for high-voltage electric vehicle applications.
Littelfuse offers both polarized and non-polarized high-voltage (HV) DC contactors or relays to meet a wide range of electric vehicle (EV) application requirements. Appropriate for the majority of HV EV applications, DC contactors with polarization offer a significant advantage in terms of electric cycle life. HV relays are designed with magnetic blowouts and gas-filled contact chambers, which allow them to make/break at higher voltages. This application note discusses these design elements and the functionality of polarization in HV DC contactors.
Polarized HV Contactors vs. Non-Polarized HV Contactors
Both polarized and non-polarized contactors allow current to flow in either direction. Polarization, however, greatly improves the make/break capability and cycle life in HV relays.
Polarized relays have magnetic blowouts that optimize the arc quenching when the current is flowing from the positive (+) input to a negative (-) output. This leads to the best quenching of the arc and the longest electric cycle life of the relay. If the relay opens on a circuit with the current reversed, it has significantly reduced cycle life. For this reason, contacts are marked as positive (+) and negative (-) on polarized relays, and proper installation to ensure the correct current flow is imperative.
Non-polarized relays have magnetic fields that are balanced to quench the arc with current running in either direction. The magnets cannot be placed as effectively, which causes greater arcing, and therefore, greater wear and shorter cycle life. The greater arcing in non-polarized contactors leads to about a 50% reduction in electrical cycle life from polarized values.
How Magnetic Blowouts and Gas-Filled Chambers Improve the Cycle Life of an HV DC Contactor
When an AC relay opens, the arc will extinguish quickly, as the voltage naturally passes through the 0V point multiple times per second. For DC relays, on the other hand, the only thing that quenches the arc is resistance as set by the distance from the input to the output through the media in the contact chamber.
Effectively extinguishing the electrical arc requires:
Media Resistance – Inert gas inside the contact chamber provides a higher ionization energy media. For an arc to propagate and move through this gas, it needs to expend more energy than it would if it were moving through air.
Distance – To lengthen the distance an arc must travel, we use a combination of double-opening contacts and magnetic blowouts.
Double-opening contacts effectively double the opening distance based on the same motion of the moving contact bridge.
Magnetic blowouts effectively lengthen the opening distance by forcing the path of the arc to the outer edge of the contact chamber along magnetic field lines created by permanent magnets in the contact area. The magnetic field lines interact with the arc by charge, so the arrangement of the magnets determines how effective the magnets are in extending the path of the arc.
Polarized magnets with the correct direction of current flow get the most displacement of the arc and the highest amount of quenching, as they have the best alignment of the field lines and the arc. When the current direction is reversed the magnetic field lines do not line up well, and the arc displacement is significantly reduced leading to longer arc duration and more damage to the contacts.
Non-polarized magnets are a compromise. when the current direction is correct to the polarization, the magnetic fields don’t line up as well compared to polarized magnets, but they line up better than polarized magnets when the current is reversed. While the electrical cycle life is reduced by about 50% from the polarized relay in the optimum situation, it is much better in the situation where the opening takes place with the current reversed.
Choosing Polarized vs. Non-Polarized HV DC Contactors
As noted, polarized and non-polarized contactors allow current to flow in both directions. Choosing a polarized HV relay or a non-polarized relay comes down to understanding the make/break and electrical cycle life considerations of an application.
The electrical cycle life is usually defined at a set voltage and rated current. In the life of a vehicle, though, most contactor cycles are low or zero current. Therefore, full voltage and current cycles are rare, and a relatively lower number of full voltage and current cycles is very common for HV contactors.
Even in applications that require short durations of current flowing back through the contactor, as is the case with regenerative braking, the current flows in the primary direction most of the time. Since a switch event during regenerative braking would be very rare, the risk to the system would be very low.
While non-polarized HV contactors may be appropriate in a few cases where current flows frequently in the reverse direction, a polarized DC contactor is more often the best choice for HV EV applications of greater than 350V.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Production Systems and Design Technology IPK, a research institute in Berlin, is participating with the Battery Pass Consortium to design and implement the technical standards of the EU’s digital battery passport. The passport will be required by the EU Batteries Act for new traction batteries, two-wheeled-vehicle batteries and industrial batteries with a capacity of over 2 kWh that are marketed in the EU, starting in February 2027.
The passport’s purpose is to ensure transparency and sustainability in the battery value chain, reduce environmental impacts, and encourage secondary use of batteries. At the Hannover Messe industrial trade exhibition in late April, Fraunhofer IPK researchers will present a draft technical reference standard designed to enable battery passports to be implemented in a way that is scalable and interoperable.
Taking the form of a software system where all data is stored in distributed data spaces and responsibility for the data is decentralized, the passport will support seamless documentation of a battery’s life, from raw material extraction and production to use, reuse, and recycling. It will fully document supply chain data, including such factors as carbon footprint, working conditions for raw material extraction, battery materials and components, hazardous substances contained, resource efficiency, performance and service life, battery status, and information on recyclability and repair. It will also include disassembly instructions to facilitate secondary use of as many components as possible.
Regarding the passport, Professor Thomas Knothe, a researcher at Fraunhofer IPK, says, “By providing verified and verifiable information, it can create transparency, support second-life uses or optimize processing by recycling providers. This supports the development of sustainable business models along the battery value chain while complying with relevant sustainability and ethical criteria. The aim is to reduce child labor and pollution in countries where the raw materials are produced and keep track of the export of old batteries, for example.”
A team at Penn State has reported using cold sintering to reprocess solid-state composite electrolytes.
According to research published in an open-access paper in the journal ChemSusChem, the technique was used to reprocess Mg- and Sr-doped Li7La3Zr2O12 with polypropylene carbonate (PPC) and lithium perchlorate (LLZO–PPC–LiClO4).
The low sintering temperature allows co-sintering of ceramics, polymers, and lithium salts, leading to the re-densification of the composite structures. Reprocessed LLZO–PPC–LiClO4 exhibits densified microstructures with ionic conductivities exceeding 10−4 S/cm at room temperature after five recycling cycles. All-solid-state lithium batteries fabricated with reprocessed electrolytes exhibit a high discharge capacity of 168 mAhg−1 at 0.1 C, and retention of performance at 0.2 C for over 100 cycles.
“We directly reprocessed LLZO–PPC–LiClO4 composite electrolytes using cold sintering and demonstrate recyclability with modest loss in ionic conductivity. Cold sintering, a low-temperature sintering technology (<300° C), is a process that enables the densification of composites comprised of ceramics, polymers, and salts. Driven by pressure and heat, densification happens with the assistance of a transient liquid phase, which functions as a medium to aid in the dissolution and regulate the precipitation and nucleation processes,” the researchers wrote.
Electric trucks are proving that they can be more powerful, more reliable, easier to use and more cost-effective than legacy diesels, one grueling job at a time. If there’s one application that requires serious power and reliability, it’s clearing snow from roads in northern Norway.
The Norwegian Road Administration recently tested an electric truck in a snow-plowing application on the road between Dombås and Grønbakken, which climbs from an elevation of 650 meters to over 1,000 meters.
The truck is a Volvo FH model that was converted to battery-electric by Swiss Designwerk Technologies, (Volvo Trucks owns a 6% stake in the company). It has a 1,000 kWh battery pack, and features technology that keeps the battery warm in order to mitigate the effect of cold weather on range. Mizanur Rahaman of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration told CleanTechnica that energy consumption has been running at about 182 kWh per 100 km.
The truck can charge at a power level of 350 kW, and a full charge takes about 2 hours. Designwerk designed the onboard charger to deliver an almost-flat charging curve from beginning to end of a charging session.
Conditions this winter have been ideal for testing an electric snowplow, Rahaman said. The region has had sub-zero temperatures and plenty of snow. The Road Administration has also successfully tested the truck in controlled conditions at its test center.
“This test shows that it is already possible to use electric vehicles even for the heaviest tasks, namely plowing on mountain passes,” says Mizanur Rahaman.
EV charging network operator EVgo has opened its first public EV charging station built using the company’s new prefabrication approach. Located at the Bay Colony Town Center in League City, Texas, this EVgo station is the first of several prefabricated stations slated to open this year.
EVgo expects its prefabrication process to reduce station construction costs by an average of 15% at suitable sites, and to reduce installation timelines by as much as 50%.
All EVgo’s prefabricated stations are expected to include 350 kW DC fast chargers. The prefabrication model can also incorporate features that enhance the customer experience, including WiFi connectivity, lighting and security cameras and integrated canopies. Outside of Texas, EVgo plans to open prefabricated stations in Florida, Nebraska, North Carolina and California in 2024.
“The opening of our first prefabricated site is a testament to the innovation driving cost reductions and accelerating deployment timelines to scale our growth engine,” said Dennis Kish, President of EVgo. “As demand for public fast charging infrastructure continues to grow, we anticipate leveraging this model at eligible sites to quickly deploy charging stations across the US.”
It’s becoming increasingly clear that the solution to the Plight of the Drivewayless (those poor souls who can’t install EV chargers at their homes) is simply lots of curbside chargers (see London and Oslo).
New York City began installing public curbside EV charging stations in 2021 as part of a pilot that was originally expected to end in July of this year. Demand has been strong, and the NYC DOT and Consolidated Edison are now hoping to extend the program for an additional year, and are beginning to plan a larger-scale, post-pilot expansion.
Con Ed issued a request for expressions of interest from EV charging companies last September, and expects to finalize details of the extension in April. The DOT has already received 32 responses from interested companies, including itselectric, Voltpost and FLO, which installed the curbside chargers for the pilot. For the next stage, DOT is seeking innovative designs that are cheaper, smaller and easier to install.
By the numbers, the results of the pilot have been impressive. Roy Rada, Project Manager for E-mobility Innovation at Con Ed, told Bloomberg that his company expected “moderate demand” for the chargers—perhaps usage rates around 15%—but that demand has been “exponentially higher.” According to the New York City DOT, Con Edison’s 100 chargers have seen an average utilization rate of 72%. That’s all the more impressive, considering that ICE vehicles blocked access to the chargers about 20% of the time (NYPD issued 2,197 parking tickets last year).
The chargers have done well in the reliability department, too. Operator FLO claims that they achieved a 99.9% uptime rate in 2024. The company has “a very aggressive maintenance program involving both regular check-ins as well as alarms,” said FLO Chief Legal and Public Affairs Officer Travis Allan. It also operates a dedicated parts depot in the city to allow it to quickly swap out components. “I think that this project is going to be a model for many other cities because it has achieved very high reliability,” Allan added.
Zelandez, a provider of technology to the lithium brine industry, has released a new Borehole Formation Tester (BFT) for lithium developers.
“While formation testers are commonplace in the oil and gas industry, their size and cost have made them impractical for use in the brinefield,” said Gene Morgan, CEO of Zelandez. “The BFT has miniaturized this technology for lithium miners.”
The BFT is a slim pump-through formation tester designed to specifically address lithium miners’ needs by measuring aquifer pressure, analyzing fluids downhole in real time, and obtaining representative brine samples. According to the company, it significantly reduces the costs of lithium brine development when compared to the less accurate packer testing method.
The BFT enables pressure and permeability testing and fluid sampling in slim boreholes down to 122 mm. It provides testing and sampling in low-permeability, laminated, fractured, unconsolidated and heterogeneous formations.
“The world needs more lithium. The old way of sampling lithium was just too slow and too cumbersome,” said Gene Morgan, CEO of Zelandez. “It was making it hard to find new lithium brine resources and to bring more lithium to market. The Borehole Formation Tester changes the game for lithium developers. The BFT was built to address the specific challenges of aquifer testing and fluid sampling in lithium brine exploration and production. Instead of taking weeks, it delivers results within hours or days.”
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has revised its procedures for calculating the petroleum-equivalent fuel economy of EVs.
The Petroleum Equivalency Factor (PEF) is used by the EPA to assess automakers’ compliance with the DOT’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards.
Savvy consumers are familiar with MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) figures, which are designed to inform car buyers about the relative efficiency of different EV models. The PEF represents a related concept, but it’s used for a different purpose. The CAFE standards require automakers to achieve a minimum average fuel efficiency for all the cars they sell, so the name of the game (for most companies) is to sell just enough high-efficiency EVs to offset the low-efficiency trucks and SUVs that provide most of their profits.
The PEF was last revised in 2020, when it was set at 82,049 Wh per gallon. In 2021, the NRDC and Sierra Club petitioned the DOE to update the regulations, which included a “multiplier” that significantly inflated the calculated fuel economy of EVs. By overstating the miles per gallon equivalent of EVs in automakers’ fleets, the prior PEF allowed automakers to sell more gas-guzzlers while still complying with CAFE rules.
The DOE’s new final rule phases out the multiplier, and updates the data used in the calculation with more current figures.
