New European Battery Consortium, SmartBatt Aims To Develop Lighter EV Batteries

 
SmartBatt is a European Battery Consortium that believes that what electric vehicles need is a lightweight battery technology. You’ve probably heard this already, but it really is of paramount importance. Lighter battery technology facilitates longer range because the batteries add less to vehicle weight, and lighter vehicle weight translates into lower energy requirements.

Lower energy requirements mean that a battery of a given capacity will be able to power the vehicle over longer distances, because more energy is available to do so. Lighter vehicles can also achieve a shorter braking distance, and they are less likely to roll over when cornering.

Autoblog Green writes:

“SmartBatt is made up of nine partners from five countries – corporations in manufacturing and technology along with research organizations, including Volkswagen, the Ricardo engineering and consulting company, the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, the Austrian Institute of Technology and the Vehicle Safety Institute.

“The team says that it’s dedicated to bringing experience and skill sets to cover all aspects of developing advanced battery technologies – vehicle competence, electrics, electronics, batteries, lightweight design, engineering, materials, safety, testing and validation. Whew. Results will be distributed through a project website, papers and training sessions, as well as face-to-face workshops and meetings with OEMs.”

So far, SmartBatt is working on a 20 kWh battery that is 15% lighter and can continuously deliver 36 kW of power.

Source: Autoblog Green