When we rebooted our life a few months back, I took the opportunity to go all in on rechargeable batteries and naturally went right back to Eneloop. We bought a nice starter pack that had a nice variety of cells and adapters as well as a charger and a few weeks later, picked up a pack of loose cells for all of our devices.
Panasonic’s research into lithium-ion batteries continues in a quest to reduce or eliminate cobalt.
At a time when Panasonic is considering additional investment in Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory, others are increasingly seeing the benefit of research support to find alternatives to politically, structurally, and geographically problematic cobalt.
With cobalt prices soaring and ethical questions about artisanal mining continuing, Panasonic has announced that it is in the process of developing cobalt-free EV batteries. Panasonic, the world’s largest automotive lithium-ion battery manufacturer and Tesla’s exclusive battery cell supplier for the Model 3 sedan, produces the cells at the joint Gigafactory 1 in Nevada.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel regularly talk about how they are constantly on the lookout for the next big thing in energy storage. To date, the 2170 cells that go into Tesla’s current energy storage products and the Model 3 appear to be the best of breed. That’s a conditional statement that necessarily balances availability of raw materials, battery cost, energy density, power density, and a number of other factors, but it is clear that Tesla is the world’s leader in lithium-ion battery production for electric cars in a number of measurable ways.
Europeans are in a quandary about whether to build battery factories now or wait for the next generation of solid state batteries to arrive. The decision is not an easy one to make.
The state of electric vehicle (EV) batteries can get confusing. Although internal combustion engine (ICE) aficionados talk about engine displacement and horsepower, EV drivers often consider energy storage as the most important part of their decision making. Today, there are more lithium battery chemistries than ever and figuring out which one is used where and what appears after the dust settles can be difficult. Here’s a brief look at what’s in store tomorrow from the major EV battery OEMs.
China is the hottest kid on the block when it comes to cleantech. As such, we try to keep an exceptionally close eye on what’s going on there and share regular reports of the most significant news of the past month or quarter.
Panasonic confirmed in recent days that it has not locked in a deal yet with Tesla for its Chinese Gigafactory. Several Panasonic executives commented on the matter, noting that plans are “not solidified yet” and that “nothing is set in stone.” It’s unclear if that’s glass-half-full or glass-half-empty commentary, but the next line leads one to think it’s in the plans.
Once considered an inconsequential niche in the automotive market, electric vehicles are becoming more widespread. And it’s not just all the new plug-in options available today — EV batteries and charging stations are also proliferating around the globe. To that end, some tell-tale charts (recently published via Statista) demonstrate the trajectory of the electric vehicle movement and who might be best positioned to win the EV race in the coming years.
