EV BATTERY ADVANCE

New Battery Tech Could Cut Electric Car Battery Pack Costs by 85%; Company plans to have new battery on the market in five years
Shane McGlaun, August 16, 2010 (Daily Tech)

"…Yet-Ming Chiang, a researcher and founder of A123 Systems, has developed a new battery design that he claims could make electric vehicles much cheaper. Chiang has started a new company to commercialize the battery technology called 24M. The researcher says that the new battery he has designed could cut costs of the battery packs for electric vehicles, such as the Chevrolet Volt, by as much as 85%.

"That cut in price on the battery pack…as much as $10,000…[could] make [electric vehicles] more cost competitive with traditional gasoline vehicles. A24 has raised $10 million in venture capital and an additional $6 million from Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy or ARPA-E. The money will be used to fund collaboration between A24, MIT, and Rutgers University."

Chiang's A123 Systems designed the lithium-ion battery for the soon-to-go-on-sale Chevy Volt. (click to enlarge)

"Chiang is offering no details on the battery technology and only gives cryptic details on the battery he has developed…[and says only that it] is a semisolid energy storage device and…uses tech that combines the best attributes of conventional batteries, fuel cells, and flow batteries."

A fuel cell would need an external fuel source and a flow battery would need bulky storage but Chiang has some kind of "hybrid" battery with neither obstacle. (click to enlarge)

[Yet-Ming Chiang, founder, A123 Systems/inventor, 24M battery:] "In a typical rechargeable battery, only half of it is actual energy-storing materials. The rest is supporting materials. That's a problem I've been thinking about for years--how do you improve the efficiency of the design?"

"Chiang says that a fuel cell doesn’t have to deal with [design efficiency], but the hydrogen isn't easy to come by…Like a fuel cell, Chiang says that his battery can store large amounts of energy, but it doesn't need huge amounts of supporting materials like a typical flow battery. The design is also said to work with a wide range of chemicals. A proof-of-concept battery has been produced and works…The goal is to have the new battery in the field within the next five years."