Li-ion battery breakthrough could revolutionise cost and range of future EVs
California-based Envia Systems claims to have broken the world record for energy density in a rechargeable Lithium-ion cell - a move it believes will accelerate the mainstream adoption of electric vehicles.
The company's automotive grade battery has an energy density of 400Wh/kg (two times higher than is currently possible with commercially available cells) and is expected to slash the price of a 300 mile range electric vehicle by cutting the cost of the battery pack by more than 50%.
"Since the inception of Envia, our product team has worked tirelessly and logged ver 25 million test channel hours to optimally develop each of the active components of the battery: Envia's proprietary Si-C anode, HCMR cathode and EHV electrolyte," said Dr Sujeet Kumar, Envia Systems' co founder, president and cto.
"In an industry where energy density tends to increase 5% a year, our achievement of more than doubling state of art energy density and lowering cost by half is a giant step towards realising Envia's mission of mass market affordability of a 300 mile electric vehicle," added chairman and ceo Atul Kapadia.
Envia was awarded grants by both the Advanced Research Projects Agency and the California Energy Commission in 2010 to develop high energy density batteries for electric ehicles. General Motors Ventures also participated in an equity investment round of $17million in 2011.
