Battery Metals

One of the major complaints people make about EVs is that they have short ranges and long charging times. The second generation Toyota Rav4 EV sold from 2012 to 2015 was no stranger to that complaint, seeing a range of just 103 miles. The Rav4 EV was built in a partnership between Toyota and Tesla, and a total of 2,489 units were built. This enthusiastic owner wanted to increase the range of his Toyota, and built this simple trailer solution to double his battery capacity, nearly doubling his range, despite the trailer’s extra 1000 pounds.

This trailer is hardly the most attractive thing in the world, but this is a case of function over form, certainly. The second battery array, also from a Rav4 EV, is wired in parallel to the original pack, which increases the amount of storage, without affecting voltage or power output.

That’s the great thing about home-built EV solutions like this; enthusiasts are able to experiment with what works and what doesn’t. In some ways, EVs are simpler to control than modern ICE cars, making DIY upgrades possible again. Electric propulsion is the new wild west of automotive tuning, whether it be adding hybrid power to non-hybrid cars, or boosting electric cars to perform better than factory. This is old-school hot rodding brought into the modern era.

The trailer retains the original Toyota floor pan casing, making it likely as safe as it would have been bolted into the Rav4 body. I’m not convinced that high-voltage cables should be hanging out in the wind as seen in the connection between the trailer and the car, but everything in life is a calculated risk, right? What’s the worst that could happen?

Currently, China’s share of the global Li-ion battery production capacity exceeds 50%.

Even with the escalating U.S.-China trade war, the Chinese share of global Li-ion battery production capacity still exceeds 50% of the market share. In turn, this puts its eight U.S manufacturers – only one of which is completely independent – to shame. And this prompted Jim Greenberger, executive director of the National Alliance of Transportation Batteries (NATTBatt), to warn that the U.S. economic security could be vulnerable to having virtually no homegrown lithium cell-production capability.

“When we started NATTBatt nearly a decade ago,” Greenberger (below, left) says at the recent Battery Show held here, “we said that ‘He who makes the batteries will eventually make the cars.’ So this is…about national economic security.”

Only one U.S based battery manufacturer, Indianapolis-based EnerDel, is completely independent and not owned by any foreign companies. Furthermore, EnerDel also is one of the smallest Li-ion battery makers, with their entire battery production capacity estimated at 200 MWh. All the rest are either wholly or partly foreign-owned or rely on foreign technology to produce their batteries. And this comes as a warning to the current U.S governmental officials, due to the overreliance on foreign battery technology.

For Greenberger, who chairs a Chicago-based trade association that aims to promote advanced-battery industry in North America, spoke to Wards Auto a few days earlier. There, he vocalized his concerns about the current state and the future of the advanced battery industry in the U.S.

“If we are interested in bringing battery manufacturing back to the United States, we are not going to outbid the Chinese. “In fact, I don’t see any prospect that we are going to be willing to make the investment in lithium.”

“My own view is that from a national perspective, we really should be looking at the next generation of battery technology…or non-battery technology…trying to make sufficient public investments to make sure that when those technologies are ready that it is North American companies that will dominate the market,” he says.

“They have simply out-invested us, and they have certain national needs which are driving electrification that are far more urgent than the need for electrification in North America. But at some point, we are going to have to start making public investment in whatever we think the next-generation battery is going to be if we are going to get back in the game.

“Maybe it will be zinc. Maybe it will be solid state or solid lithium. Maybe it will be fuel cells,” Greenberger says. “I would be looking at how to get beyond lithium-ion and making sure that the United States is investing in whatever is going to replace it.”

Furthermore, to make matters even worse, there’s speculation that CATL – China’s largest Li-ion battery maker – which in July announced plans to build a 14-GWh plant in Germany, has its sights set on the U.S as well. This would further make the U.S fall behind on both battery tech and volume, making the world’s biggest economy be put at risk in various aspects. Plainly put, the United States is lagging behind and measures will need to be taken to combat the recent Chinese developments fully.

The Role of Cobalt in Battery Production

As the use of lithium batteries continues to rise as a result of an increasing demand for this energy storage system, the use of cobalt, an element that arises as a byproduct of copper and nickel mining procedures, has also increased. Within a rechargeable lithium ion battery exists two electrodes that are fully emerged in an electrolyte solution and separated by a permeable polymer membrane¹.

During charge, the lithium ions pass through this membrane from the positive cathode electrode to the negative anode electrode. Once the charging process is completed, these ions then return to the cathode to provide electrons to the anode that eventually reach the external circuit for use in electronic devices.

While carbon graphite is a commonly used anode electrode material, various oxide forms of elements including nickel, cobalt, copper, iron, chromium, zinc and manganese can be utilized as the cathode electrode. The main role of the cathode electrode within a lithium ion battery is to adequately store lithium ions through electrochemical intercalation and maintain neutrality of the battery until employed to power an electrical device.

One of the more commonly used cathodes includes lithium-cobalt-oxide, within which the cobalt layer improves the overall structure of the cathode to withstand up to 60% of lithium being removed from the structure while reducing oxygen emissions from the cathode¹.

While cobalt is a useful metal for lithium ion batteries, it is an extremely expensive metal that in 2017 experienced a 129% surge in price². Additionally, the acquisition of cobalt has been associated with violating a number of human rights violations, such as child mining, around the world. Therefore, researchers in major industries such as Tesla and Panasonic have become increasingly interested in investigating batteries that do not require cobalt parts within their structure.

The Push Towards Manganese

When comparing the commodity prices of elements on August 6^th, 2018, manganese, which is one of the cheapest elements currently available on the market, totals at $38.50 USD, whereas cobalt is a staggering $65,000³. In addition to these considerable differences in costs, manganese has already been used as a stabilizing metal in traditional layered lithium ion battery cathodes.

Although previous research endeavors have investigated the potential of manganese and some of the other aforementioned metal oxides to completely replace cobalt elements present within lithium ion batteries, they have often been limited as a result of an inability to control the oxygen reduction activity that occurs during following the movement of lithium ions during charging processes.

To address this major limitation, a group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) led by Gerbrand Ceder have successfully incorporated manganese into the cathode of a lithium ion battery. By lowering the valence of manganese to Mn²⁺, Ceder’s team substituted some of the excess oxygen anions with lower-valent fluorine ions at the same time that certain manganese cations were replaced with higher-valent nobium and titanium ions⁴.

As a result of this swapping of ions, the researchers found that a high fraction of lithium ions was able to move from the cathode to the anode without risking and instability during the process. In addition, the researchers also found that their manganese cathodes exhibited a much higher density of approximately 1000 Wh/kg as compared to traditional cathodes that typically exhibit an energy density ranging between 600-700 Wh/kg⁴.

Further investigation into the potential replacement of cobalt by manganese has been conducted by 95 year old researcher John Goodenough at the University of Texas-Austin. Goodenough is well known for co-inventing manganese spinel lithium batteries that are currently found in tens of thousands of both hybrid and electric vehicles⁵. Currently, Goodenough is focusing his research projects on developing a lithium-ion battery that is completely devoid from liquid electrolytes, dendrites and any potential overheating while simultaneously exhibiting an exceptionally rapid charging capability.

References

1. “Understanding the Role of Cobalt in Batteries” – DesignNews
2. “Cobalt price bulls’ worst fears may just have been confirmed” – Mining.com
3. “Commodities” – Trading Economics
4. “Manganese makeover for lithium-ion batteries” – Chemistry World
5. “At 95, John Goodenough is Still Searching for Next Big Battery Breakthrough” – DesignNews

One of the key reasons for using an industrial robot to automate a process is to improve product quality, through increased reliability and accuracy. But for robots to be truly reliable and safe, engineers should ensure they have the correct power solutions. This article explains the impact poor design and integration of batteries can have on industrial robots.

In a survey conducted by the journal Science Robotics, researchers revealed that power and energy sources represent one of the most challenging areas of robotics research. With a multitude of potential applications, this is particularly important for robots operating outside the confines of a cage, untethered from an electrical outlet and working alongside human employees.

For instance, autonomous mobile robots and automated guided vehicles, such as Omron’s series of LD self navigating autonomous intelligent vehicles and Kuka’s KMR series of mobile robots have become commonplace sites at trade shows and in industry. Because they can’t constantly connect to a power supply like a traditional industrial robot, their power requirements are far more complex.

The report goes on to say, “Beyond the currently available commercial technologies such as lead-acid, nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries, there has already been extensive research on developing next-generation technologies such as fuel cells and supercapacitors”.

Losing It All

If any robot, collaborative, mobile or traditional, were to lose power mid-application, it can have a devastating effect. For industries such as food and beverage or pharmaceuticals, downtime can result in loss of product and profit. For robots in the medical sector, loss of power could result in surgeons having to operate manually, which may not be as accurate, in-turn increasing potential risk. More likely, it would result in the surgery being cancelled.

In addition, power failure can also mean a robot loses calibration and mastering values. Calibration establishes the parameters in the kinematic structure of a robot, such as the position of its joints, tool-centre-point (TCP) positions and joint lengths.

Knowing Its Origins

A robot’s origin position is a vital part of the set-up process because it instructs the machine on what position it should return to when it rests. The memory for where each axis should be is stored in the robot battery. Without the position, every path trajectory will be off, resulting in inaccurate actions that can damage equipment or even hurt nearby workers.

If the battery fails mid-process, the operator must re-programme the robot’s origin position before restarting the application. Retraining can take a considerable amount of time to ensure all axes are aligned correctly, resulting in further production downtime.

To avoid the need for re-programming and retraining, operators should ensure that the robot returns to its origin position when it powers down. This means that should the battery fail during start up, the robot is already in its origin position.

Addressing Power Needs

As robots become increasingly more intuitive, their power demands also become significantly greater. To complete more complex tasks robots may be fitted with an array of sensors to detect variations in light, sound, temperature, and distance. Each of these sensors places a greater demand on power, meaning a more effective solution may be required.

When considering potential battery options for your robot, there are several options available, however Li-Ion (lithium-ion battery), Li-Poly (lithium polymer) and NiMH (nickel-metal hydride) are normally considered to be the most suitable for robots with high power requirements.

Ultralife Corporation, for example, has designed a range of primary, non-rechargeable lithium thionyl chloride and lithium manganese dioxide cells and batteries to provide further long-term power solutions. As with all batteries, regular testing is vital to ensure they do not die unexpectedly.

While industrial robots continue to improve productivity, competitiveness and overall process automation, if they are not supplied with adequate power manufacturers could face additional problems. When a design engineer or systems integrator begins work on a new robot project, he or she should consider power supply at the outset, to ensure that the project bears fruit in the way the end user would want.

Audi has applied the “E-Tron” label to a smattering of electrified cars and concepts over the last nine years, but with the new E-Tron SUV the company puts its pure electric stake in the ground.

The first fully electric production Audi will be a five seat, dual motor, all-wheel drive SUV ranging from $75,795 to $87,695, delivered, before applicable federal and state tax credits. At those price points, Audi is targeting buyers who want their car to express an image of currency, not just cost a fair amount of it.

Conspicuously absent from the E-Tron SUV’s specification list is range, which Audi is leaving for the EPA to pronounce. Competing electric SUVs from Tesla, Jaguar and soon Mercedes-Benz estimate between 240 and 290 miles of range. Given how Americans use SUVs, Audi will want to be closer to 300 miles of range than to 200. On a DC fast charger you’ll replace 80 percent of that unknown range in 30 minutes. The more common Level 2 home charger fully replenishes the battery overnight, no surprise there.

What we do know is that the E-Tron SUV’s battery is a big 95-kWh, 7-foot long, 1,545-pound slab slung under the vehicle via 35 bolts that make it a structural element. The bottom side is a thick aluminum plate to withstand impacts, while an internal aluminum lattice supports 36 shoebox-size battery modules in contact with a conductive gel and liquid cooling system. Audi takes pains to describe the system as safe and stable, apparently sensing some weakness in Tesla’s technology reputation.

One asynchronous AC motor sits at each end of the vehicle, with the rear doing most of the work unless slip or other performance conditions call for the front wheel motor to kick in. It’s Quattro all-wheel drive, but with a different agenda, and accelerating to 60 miles per hour happens in an estimated 5.5 seconds. A selection of seven drive modes sounds a but gilded, but we’ll reserve judgement until we get a production unit in for test. As the motors sit on axle lines, not at corners, torque vectoring is done via wheel braking. But more interesting than how the E-Tron SUV applies power is how it conserves it.

During coasting or braking, both motors and all four wheels contribute to battery regeneration, which can be set to one of three levels via steering wheel paddles. The most aggressive setting is sticky enough to allow one-pedal driving, as first popularized by the BMW i3 and second-generation Nissan Leaf. Audi estimates that 90 percent of the vehicle’s braking — up to 0.3g — will be handled entirely via regeneration and not the brake pads. Instrument panel prompts tell the driver when to lift off while driving, based on navigation data, forward radar sensing, and analysis of camera imagery.

During an early taste of the system recently, we verified the braking system’s efficiency via a novel metric: Comfortably placing a hand on cool brake rotors immediately after a steep descent of Pikes Peak.

All in, Audi estimates this complex regeneration system will account for 30 percent of an E-Tron SUV’s range, tacitly acknowledging that heavy batteries and long charging times remain an EVs biggest flaws.

Just as ambitious as Audi’s onboard power handling is its plan for charging. In an auto industry first, the company has partnered with Amazon Home Services to support purchase and installation of a Level 2 charger in your home. Level 2 charger installs are nothing novel, but doing them with a minimum of contractor interviews and price shopping is. When you’re on the road, E-Tron charging is supported by a network of 500 fast charging sites in partnership with Electrify America, a company created from a $2 billion fund VW set up as part of its settlement for emissions cheating. New E-Tron SUV buyers get the equivalent of 11 free full charges on that network during the first four years of ownership and, of course, you can use a growing array of other chargers as well.

The recognizable styling of the E-Tron SUV, battery regeneration story, Amazon charger installs, and network of Electrify America stations are all about reducing fear. “We view the whole thing as a trust leap” by potential buyers, admits Audi of America president Scott Keogh. “We’ve tried to make that leap as small as possible.”

Audi is taking E-Tron SUV reservations now for a $1,000 refundable deposit. By the time the first vehicles are delivered in mid-2019, Jaguar, Porsche and Mercedes will also be in the thick of taking it to Tesla. Audi’s Keogh doesn’t seem to mind the company. “The biggest thing with the luxury buyer is ‘purchase confirmation,'” he says. “They drop the kids at school, see another parent in a new kind of car and say ‘that’s interesting’. They don’t want to be first, but they don’t want to be left behind, either.”

Tesla’s mission is to replace all internal combustion engines with electric powertrains. It began with sedans, but also has an SUV and has plans for semis and pickup trucks. By now, most of us know the advantages of electric vehicles — massive low-end torque and greatly reduced fuel and maintenance costs leading to a lower total cost of ownership. Zero emissions is just icing on the cake for many buyers.

During the introduction of the Tesla Semi last year, the company quietly slipped in a hint about what a Tesla pickup truck (it won’t be called the Model T) might look like. A graphic of an enormous pickup-like vehicle built on a Semi chassis showed a more conventional looking pickup truck in the load bed. Was it a glimpse of the Tesla pickup? Or was the vehicle carrying it the Tesla pickup?

The editors of Business Insider have raised a question this week about whether Tesla could actually crack the pickup truck market even if it builds a world class electric pickup truck. The issue is similar to the one Harley Davidson is facing as it contemplates how to expand its product lineup to include electric motorcycles — public perception. (Note that Business Insider has one of the highest ratios of negative:positive Tesla headlines of all the major media sites we track for our fresh new “Pravduh About Tesla” reports.)

For the Harley faithful, a machine from the famed Milwaukee manufacturer must have a V Twin internal combustion engine that makes the now famous “potato-potato” sound at idle. Both are an integral part of the brand Harley Davidson has created. The look and the sound convey a message to Harley fans. Will they still buy from Harley if those features are lacking?

Will pickup truck customers feel the same way? Ford, GM, and Chrysler have spent billions carefully crafting an image of pickup truck owners that has little to do with the actual performance of their vehicles. Just like the Marlboro Man, the pickup truck mystique taps into a deep subtext in American culture — the rugged individualists who conquered the Old West. Call it “cowboy culture,” if you like.

Like Harley Davidson, American pickups are for people who perceive themselves as bold, brawny, and brash. Owners like to think of themselves as iconoclasts — people who think for themselves and who are not part of the herd — even though every pickup truck looks pretty muck like every other pickup truck.

To buttress its case, Business Insider points to the Toyota Tundra, a pretty good pickup truck that has been sold in America for more than 20 years. Toyota has spent untold bundles of cash on flashy ads designed to convince the faithful that its pickup trucks are just as bold, just as brawny, and just as rugged as those from Ford, GM, and Chrysler.

Nevertheless, sales numbers tell the tale. “The Tundra is a great truck,” BI writes, “but in 2017 Toyota sold just over 115,000 in the US, while Ford sold almost 900,000 F-150s.” Between Chevy and GM, General Motors sold just as many pickups. Chrysler moved nearly 600,000 of its Ram 1500’s. Clearly, real pickup truck owners have turned their noses up at the thought of driving a Tundra.

BI says a Tesla pickup will face the same uphill struggle for market share as Toyota. In fact, it claims, the California (and Nevada) company will only find buyers at the top of the price range where people are willing to spend $100,000 or more just to park something different in the driveway.

That’s exactly what people said about the Model S and the Model X. But the success of the Model 3 has proven them all wrong. People continue to underestimate Tesla. As EV fans, we believe an electric pickup from Tesla would deal a crippling blow to the Big 2½, which rely on pickup trucks to stay afloat. Laissez les bon temps roulez!