USABC is US Advanced Battery Consortium, which is a subsidiary of USCAR. The purpose of our organization is to support advanced battery technology development and commercialization for electrical vehicle application, and the funding is through a cooperative agreement with DOE. The talk will give an overview about the current and past USABC programs and future funding opportunities for US battery developers.

We clarify degradation phenomena in a pouch cell that contains an NMC622 insertion electrode and a Li counter electrode. Greater than 500 cycles have been achieved in these cells employing 4 mAh/cm2 for both the initial Li metal negative and the NMC622 positive, and we find that cation mixing within the NMC622 is prevalent. The MSMR model along with a new degradation model enable quantitative treatment of experimental data.

The anticipated large expansion in the application of traction batteries will increase the demand and use of several critical materials, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper. There are several parallel approaches being considered to manage the consequences that such a great increase in material demand brings. This talk will discuss cell chemistry and pack design selection as well as considerations for battery service, remanufacturing, repurposing, and recycling.

Recuperation during breaking is one of the key contributors of highly efficient EVs. While energy can be recuperated during breaking, this process inadvertently generates heat in the system, which can cause the battery to degrade faster.Here we highlight how recuperation pulses can instead result in a reduction of heat generation in cells by depolarizing them, leading to overall lower cell temperatures when compared to systems without recuperation.

Industry and governments are trying to develop and support new battery technologies that will help ensure sustainable business. With the skyrocketing battery demand in recent years, urgency has increased but the obstacles to commercialization of alternative chemistries have also become more apparent. This talk attempts to generate an overview and to provide suggestions that lead to success.

Making the 12V lead-acid battery and the vehicle communicate…that’s smart. Learn how Clarios’ BMS and electronics expertise from Li-ion and lead-acid manufacturing expertise drive innovation for 12V lead-acid batteries. This technical product breakdown contrasts how real-time monitoring through onboard electronics outperforms traditional sensing technologies. Providing the most accurate state of health/function assessment is critical when the vehicle relies on the 12V battery as a safety redundant power source in BEVs.

High-nickel NMC blended with lithium metal phosphate (LMP) can offer the energy density of layered oxides with the safety advantage of olivines. To realize these potential advantages, the base materials and the blend need to be optimized. This presentation demonstrates the use of Wildcat’s high-throughput workflow to provide a systematic evaluation of NMC and LMP blends to map the performance space. The focus will be on performance metrics for high-energy cells with power performance sufficient for auto applications. In addition to varying the cathode inputs, the effects of blend ratios, formulations, and electrode designs were also evaluated. 

Solid-state lithium-ion batteries hold great promise as a next-generation technology for automotive but remain an unproven technology. The incumbent technology of liquid lithium-ion has benefited from thirty-two years of continuous improvement and today performs well in most automotive applications. A discussion of the status and unique challenges and needs presented by this solid-state lithium-ion battery technology will be presented and contrasted with liquid lithium-ion batteries.

EVs must be able to compete with legacy ICE vehicles on cost, performance, and efficiency in order to increase EV penetration to the levels required to help the automotive industry meet tighter emissions regulations and enable a lower-carbon future. A key goal for QuantumScape this year is increasing the cathode capacity loading to optimize for energy density. But thicker cathodes can have some adverse effects on cell performance as well. In this talk, we will discuss QuantumScape's approach and path to high-loading cathodes.

Increasing battery demand and requirements towards high performance cells are pushing lithium-ion technology to its limits. Recent developments in solid-state technology have led to a high level of media attention, and both start-ups and large cell manufacturers are intensively working on the industrialization of their next-generation technology as major challenge. The competitiveness of currently leading players regarding technology, scalability and costs aspects will be evaluated and discussed in the presentation.

Solid-state lithium-ion batteries are predicted to become mainstream in the next few years due to their superior performance. SDSU and Solid Energies, Inc. have developed these batteries with high energy density (350Wh/kg), wide operating temperature (-10 to 70C), excellent safety, and lower cost. We will present a new kind of battery pack that can provide 200k miles or more with lower cost and improved safety.