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Battery and Energy storage has become the name of the new game and inevitable technology in the era of automotive electrification. Fig. 1 shows the technology landscape of various energy technologies available or known today with respect to Energy Density and Power Density.  Energy Density represents the capacity or range of vehicle whereas Power density represents the instant power or acceleration of the vehicle.

Fig 1: Energy Storage Technology Landscape

Let’s zoom further onto battery technology which is most feasible and attractive energy storage paving ways for automotive electrification.  Fig. 2 shows technology landscape of various battery technologies with respect to volumetric density and gravimetric density. These metrics are important for automotive applications given the tighter constraints on overall weight and size available for accommodating the power pack. The batter technology advancements although evolves toward achieve compact and high energy density batteries. All the batteries in the landscape can be assumed to have same power density to get the clear perspective during the comparison.

Fig 2: Battery Technology Landscape

(Source: http://homework.uoregon.edu/pub/class/hc441/bstorage.html )

 

Let’s look at how battery has been evolving on the time axis. Fig.3 shows the evolution of battery trade-off in terms Pros and Cons of each generation of key battery technology. The combination of pros and cons driven by unique characteristics of battery makes it more suitable for one application over other.

Fig. 3: Evolution of Battery Trade-Offs

It’s worth noting that no battery is free from trade-off. The battery chemistry is evolving towards using more active and lighter materials with higher controllability on operating parameters.  Let’s also note as technology is progressing, the focus is shifting towards safety and managing robustness of the battery as it becomes more and more sensitive to operating and environmental noise factors.

 

Fig.4 shows further zoomed in version for Lithium battery technology and it’s variants. Assuming power density remains same, the trend is focused on improving energy density, safety and robustness of these batteries as future promise.

 

Fig 4:  Development of Lithium Based Batteries

 

Battery evolution considering it as system is happening along the development of electrodes, electrolytes, advanced battery management system, recyclability and integrated power solutions.  Fig.5 shows the evolution of battery and it’s components as dominant technology trends based on literature and patents available. They might not be comprehensive covering all other auxiliary developments however enables to provide big picture view to engineers.

Overall, the ongoing academia research, IP filing trend and literature can be further used to refine and develop the detailed trajectory of these developments to gain reasonable sense of what lies in future. Engineering fraternity and industry can appreciate and make use of this information to determine technology strategy and roadmap creation to fuel the future business.

 

 

Fig 5:  Dominant Battery Technology Evolution Trends