Next Batteries

I decided to pick out four up-and-coming battery companies to highlight the companies that are trying to break in to the battery industry with breakthrough innovations. Keep in mind – they can get all the way to cell commercialization, but to compete in the EV market they will go up against the highly integrated cells Gigafactory Tesla is building on cost, a very tall order.

Li-S

Lithium Sulfur cells have an excellent energy to weight ratio, but have struggled with energy to volume ratio and cycle life. The upside is that Li-S is a relatively safe chemistry, so car companies will be able to reduce the amount of safety equipment integrated into the battery pack, increasing the percentage of pack weight and volume dedicated to battery cells.

Sion Power: Recently broke a record for longest unmanned aerial flight of an all-electric UAV (14 days) using solar power and their 350Wh/kg batteries to store energy during the night.

Oxis Energy: Recently announced 300 Wh/kg, in a 25Ah cell. I’m guessing their Wh/l figure is quite low, but they are working on increasing that aspect as well as getting to 400Wh/kg by 2016 and 500Wh/kg by 2018. Their EV cell target is a 95Ah cell with 450Wh/l and 400Wh/kg.

Lithium Solid State

Solid State batteries have been a holy grail for batteries for a while now because they can be form-fitted to fit spaces. They have high volumetric density and cycle life, but have issues with Li-Ion conductivity through the solid electrolyte (low power, slow changing current).

Sakti3: On a recent episode of Autoline, the founder and CEO of the company stated they had achieved over 1,100 Wh/l in a battery cell. No mention of weight of the cell, but she expressed her optimism that they could be in consumer electronics in two years (late 2016).

Solid Energy: Recently demonstrated a cell with 1,337 Wh/l. Expresses confidence that they will be commercially available in 2016.