Metals Tech

Car giant Stellantis and Chinese manufacturer CATL said Tuesday they would build a $4.3-billion factory to make electric vehicle batteries in Spain, the latest bid to boost Europe’s troubled EV drive.

They said they aim to start production by the end of 2026 at the site in the northern city of Zaragoza.

It “could reach up to 50 GWh capacity, subject to the evolution of the electrical market in Europe and continued support from authorities in Spain and the European Union”, the companies said in a statement.

The two firms signed an agreement in 2023 to produce battery parts for the manufacture of electric vehicles in Europe.

CATL, which has received robust financial support from Beijing, has launched two other European factories, in Germany and Hungary.

Its chief executive Robin Zeng met late on Monday with Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, ahead of the announcement of the 4.1-billion-euro deal.

In a message on X, the Socialist premier thanked the presidents of the two firms for their “firm commitment” to Spain, adding he was “very pleased”.

During a visit to China in September, Sanchez urged the European Union to “reconsider” a plan to impose tariffs on Chinese electric cars, calling for a “compromise” between the economic powerhouses.

Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo called the announcement “excellent news for industry and employment in our country”.

Spain has been playing a growing role in European vehicle production, assembling 1.87 million cars in 2023—the second-biggest producer in the continent after Germany, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association.

Bumpy patch for carmakers

The announcement comes at a turbulent time in the car industry as countries seek to switch to low-carbon electric vehicles to curb the climate crisis.

Sweden’s financially strained electric car battery maker Northvolt last month announced the resignation of its chief executive Peter Carlsson.

That came hours after the company sought bankruptcy protection in the United States.

The company said in September it was slashing 1,600 jobs—a quarter of its staff—and suspending the expansion of its site as it struggled with strained finances and a slowdown in demand.

The company had been seen as a cornerstone of European attempts to catch up with China and the United States in the production of battery cells, a crucial component of lower-emission cars.

Stellantis’s former chief executive Carlos Tavares also resigned on December 1, with the company signaling differences over how to save the group’s slumping profits.

Like other auto groups, Stellantis has blamed competition from China and the difficult transition to electric cars for much of its troubles.

It announced on November 26 that it was closing a factory at Luton in England with the loss of 1,100 jobs.

‘High-quality’ EVs

Founded in 2011 in Ningde, eastern China, CATL produces more than a third of the electric vehicle batteries sold in the world.

Italian-US-French company Stellantis produces 14 brands including Fiat, Peugeot-Citroen, Opel, Maserati, Chrysler, Ram and Jeep.

The Zaragoza plant will make lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, which are cheaper to produce but less powerful compared with nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) ones, the other current mainstream technology.

The companies said the factory, which will be designed to be completely carbon neutral, would enable Stellantis “to offer more high-quality, durable and affordable battery-electric passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs”.

Stellantis chairman John Elkann said in the statement that the venture “will bring innovative battery production to a manufacturing site that is already a leader in clean and renewable energy”.

Zeng said CATL’s goal was “to make zero-carbon technology accessible across the globe”.

The deal is expected to be closed in 2025, subject to regulation.

There’s a big push underway to increase the lifespan of lithium-ion batteries powering EVs on the road today. By law, in the US, these cells must be able to hold 80% of their original full charge after eight years of operation.

However, many industry experts believe we need batteries that last decades—so that once they’re no longer robust enough for use in EVs, we can put them to use in “second-life applications”—such as bundling them together to store wind and solar energy to power the electrical grid.

Researchers from Dalhousie University used the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan to analyze a new type of lithium-ion battery material—called a single-crystal electrode—that’s been charging and discharging non-stop in a Halifax lab for more than six years.

It lasted more than 20,000 cycles before it hit the 80% capacity cutoff. That translates to driving a jaw-dropping 8 million kms. As part of the study, the researchers compared the new type of battery—which has only recently come to market—to a regular lithium-ion battery that lasted 2,400 cycles before it reached the 80% cutoff.

“The main focus of our research was to understand how damage and fatigue inside a battery progresses over time, and how we can prevent it,” says Toby Bond, a senior scientist at the CLS, who conducted the research for his Ph.D., under the supervision of Professor Jeff Dahn, Professor Emeritus and Principal Investigator (NSERC/Tesla Canada/Dalhousie Alliance Grant) at Dalhousie University.

Things got very interesting, he says, when the scientists used the ultrabright synchrotron light to peer inside the two batteries. When they looked at the inner workings of the regular lithium-ion battery, they saw an extensive amount of microscopic cracking in the electrode material, caused by repeated charging and discharging. The lithium, he explains, actually forces the atoms in the battery material apart and causes expansion and contraction of the material.

“Eventually, there were so many cracks that the electrode was essentially pulverized.”

However, when the researchers looked at the single crystal electrode battery, they saw next to no evidence of this mechanical stress. “In our images, it looked very much like a brand-new cell. We could almost not tell the difference.”

Bond attributes the near absence of degradation in the new style battery to the difference in the shape and behavior of the particles that make up the battery electrodes. In the regular battery, the battery electrodes are made up of tiny particles up to 50 times smaller than the width of a hair.

If you zoom in on these particles, they are composed of even tinier crystals that are bunched together like snowflakes in a snowball. The single crystal is, as its name implies, one big crystal: it’s more like an ice cube. “If you have a snowball in one hand, and an ice cube in the other, it’s a lot easier to crush the snowball,” says Bond. “The ice cube is much more resistant to mechanical stress and strain.”

While researchers have for some time known that this new battery type resists the micro cracking that lithium-ion batteries are so susceptible to, this is the first time anyone has studied a cell that’s been cycled for so long. “The great thing about doing this kind of measurement at a synchrotron is we can actually look at this at a microscopic level without having to take the cell apart. Once we cycle a cell for six years, you really don’t want to take it apart—it’s very precious, it’s very valuable to us, with so much information contained within it.”

Bond says what’s most exciting about the research is that it suggests we may be near the point where the battery is no longer the limiting component in an EV—as it may outlast the other parts of the car. “We really need these vehicles to last as long as possible, because the longer you drive them, the better its improvement on the carbon footprint is,” says Bond. As well, if battery packs can outlast the vehicle, you can use them for mass energy storage—where the energy density that’s critical for powering an EV—doesn’t matter as much.

The new batteries are already being produced commercially, says Bond, and their use should ramp up significantly within the next couple of years. “I think work like this just helps underscore how reliable they are, and it should help companies that are manufacturing and using these batteries to plan for the long term.”

The research is published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society.

We first heard about Chargie a few years ago when Lighty Gadgets first debuted a unit to optimize charging for smartphones. Now, Chargie is back in a new version focused on laptop battery health.

Despite device makers having solutions for battery aging that sets charge limits at 80% automatically, the reality is it isn’t always reliable or available or on older devices that don’t support the feature. Chargie allows for more granular scheduling, much lower and configurable overnight charging states, and is overall the better solution to charging optimization. Chargie makes it easy by giving you the ability to manually adjust the charging limit along with a fully controllable daily scheduler to keep the battery at a much safer 50% or 60% while you can, and also have it at 90 or 100% at times when you need longer battery life.

Together with its companion app, the new Chargie for Laptops will take care of your notebook’s battery health automatically by smartly limiting and scheduling the daily charging process. Head below to scope out all the details and learn more about Chargie for Laptops.

The Ever-Growing Charging Challenge

Laptops, just like smartphones, tablets, and most electronic devices, use lithium-ion batteries that are highly efficient and pack a lot of power in a small package. These batteries, however, require careful management to keep them in good shape for a long time. Turns out, there are only things that can shorten their lifespan. One way to damage a lithium-ion battery is by completely draining it. Frequent deep discharges can significantly shorten its life. Another way to harm the battery, believe it or not, is by keeping it fully charged for extended periods. This can also lead to degradation over time.

It is true that a lot of laptops offer built-in battery management options, but they’re all fairly limited and offer very little control over how much power — and for how long — is delivered. This is where Chargie comes in as a handy device that can smartly limit and schedule the daily charging process.

A smarter way to charge laptops

Chargie for Laptops, just like its smartphone counterpart, is a small device that you fit between your laptop and its power supply. The new Chargie for Laptops work a bit differently than the original one, but it essentially achieves similar results by optmizing the charging process. Once connected, you can then install Chargie’s free companion app on your Windows laptop, MacBook, or Chromebook, and customize things like the charge limit and schedule. As highlighted in Chargie’s Kickstarter page, you’ll find adapters compatible with most major laptop brands like HP, Dell, Lenovo, and more. You’ll also be able to order an adapter later from Chargie’s shop if the one you’re looking for is not available right now. Chargie’s new and updated firmware offers smart features like timed charging, and you’ll also be able to set limits and select how slow or fast your notebook charges.

Protects both your wallet and the environment

Not only is Chargie saving you money by extending your laptop battery’s lifespan, but it’s also directly reducing the environmental impact by preventing premature battery replacements. Swapping out batteries, as you probably already know, can not only be costly, but they also largely contribute to electronic waste. Notably, the new Chargie for Laptops itself is said to have a long-lasting design, which means it’ll “last for many years.”

Chargie for Laptops is currently in a crowdfunding stage and you can back this project on Kickstarter. You can pledge the project and get it started at just $40 with an early bird unit. Each Chargie unit comes with a short 4-inch USB-C cable. You’ll also be able to order adapters compatible with most major laptop brands like HP, Dell, Lenovo, and more. You’ll find more details about Chargie for Laptops over at its Kickstarter project page. Also, be sure to stay tuned to Chargie’s X and Facebook channels to get more updates on the project and its timelines.

There is also the existing Chargie C Basic for phones that allows for slower charging and better battery life for phones. You can visit the Chargie website to shop the current lineup of Chargie products with some great holiday discounts available for a limited time.

A team of researchers has beaten its own record for the fastest swimming soft robot, drawing inspiration from manta rays to improve their ability to control the robot’s movement in the water.

“Two years ago, we demonstrated an aquatic soft robot that was able to reach average speeds of 3.74 body lengths per second,” says Jie Yin, corresponding author of a new paper on the work and an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University.

“We have improved on that design. Our new soft robot is more energy efficient and reaches a speed of 6.8 body lengths per second. In addition, the previous model could only swim on the surface of the water. Our new robot is capable of swimming up and down throughout the water column.”

The latest research is published in the journal Science Advances.

The soft robot has fins shaped like those of a manta ray, and is made of a material that is stable when the fins are spread wide. The fins are attached to a flexible, silicone body that contains a chamber that can be pumped full of air. Inflating the air chamber forces the fins to bend—similar to the down stroke when a manta flaps its fins. When the air is let out of the chamber, the fins spontaneously snap back into their initial position.

“Pumping air into the chamber introduces energy into the system,” says Haitao Qing, first author of the paper and a Ph.D. student at NC State. “The fins want to return to their stable state, so releasing the air also releases the energy in the fins. That means we only need one actuator for the robot and allows for more rapid actuation.”

Studying the fluid dynamics of manta rays also played a key role in controlling the vertical movement of the soft robot.

“We observed the swimming motion of manta rays and were able to mimic that behavior in order to control whether the robot swims toward the surface, swims downward, or maintains its position in the water column,” says Jiacheng Guo, co-author of the paper and a Ph.D. student at the University of Virginia.

“When manta rays swim, they produce two jets of water that move them forward. Mantas alter their trajectory by altering their swimming motion. We adopted a similar technique for controlling the vertical movement of this swimming robot. We’re still working on techniques that will give us fine control over lateral movements.”

“Specifically, simulations and experiments showed us that the downward jet produced by our robot is more powerful than its upward jet,” says Yuanhang Zhu, co-author of the paper and an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Riverside. “If the robot flaps its fins quickly, it will rise upward. But if we slow down the actuation frequency, this allows the robot to sink slightly in between flapping its fins—allowing it to either dive downward or swim at the same depth.”

“Another factor that comes into play is that we are powering this robot with compressed air,” Qing says. “That’s relevant because when the robot’s fins are at rest, the air chamber is empty, reducing the robot’s buoyancy. And when the robot is flapping its fins slowly, the fins are at rest more often. In other words, the faster the robot flaps its fins, the more time the air chamber is full, making it more buoyant.”

The researchers have demonstrated the soft robot’s functionality in two different ways. First, one iteration of the robot was able to navigate a course of obstacles arrayed on the surface and floor of a water tank. Second, the researchers demonstrated that the untethered robot was capable of hauling a payload on the surface of the water, including its own air and power source.

“This is a highly engineered design, but the fundamental concepts are fairly simple,” Yin says. “And with only a single actuation input, our robot can navigate a complex vertical environment. We are now working on improving lateral movement, and exploring other modes of actuation, which will significantly enhance this system’s capabilities. Our goal is to do this with a design that retains that elegant simplicity.”

The paper was co-authored by Yinding Chi and Yaoye Hong, former Ph.D. students at NC State; and by Daniel Quinn and Haibo Dong of UVA.

 

In a potentially game-changing move for the EV industry, Stellantis and Zeta Energy Corp have teamed up to develop the next-generation EV battery with more range, more power, 50% faster charging, and at less than half the cost.

Lithium-ion batteries have powered the electric vehicle (EV) revolution since 2008, when Tesla introduced the Roadster to the world, powered by 53 kWh of Li-ion goodness, with a range of around 245 miles (394 km). The iconic Roadster nearly doubled the 140-mile (225 km) range of General Motors’ 1999 EV1, which powered by an incredibly heavy, 26.4 kWh nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) battery pack.

Despite lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries having been conceptualized in the 1960s, practical applications were limited due to issues like poor life cycles and capacity loss from something called “the polysulfide shuttle effect,” unique to Li-S batteries. As the battery discharges, sulfur at the cathode side reacts with the lithium, creating lithium polysulfides which diffuse through the electrolyte to the anode leaving deposits. While charging, some polysulfides would migrate back to the cathode, but not all, degrading the battery very quickly.

Texas, USA-based Zeta, in partnership with global automotive giant, Stellantis, reckons it’s got that figured out.

Recent advancements in material technology and the development of barriers and coatings trap these polysulfides, preventing them from “shuttling” between the electrodes, effectively fixing the pesky premature death effect.

The collaboration could mean a leap in EV battery technology:

Li-S is significantly lighter than their Li-ion counterparts. A Li-ion battery typically packs between 150-250 watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg) of energy in them. Li-S can achieve up to 400-600 Wh/kg. That’s a lot of juice.

Li-S can provide same amount of power with a smaller package – meaning not only greater range in your EV because the batteries are going to weigh 30-50% less, but better handling and performance. The lighter, the better.

The two companies also claim improvements in fast-charging speeds by as much as 50% over traditional lithium-ion battery packs. Li-S has a simpler chemistry and doesn’t rely on the slow diffusion of lithium ions into solid materials (like the graphite in Li-ion). Instead, reactions occur directly between the lithium and sulfur which is faster and more straightforward. They also operate at lower voltages, so they don’t have as much resistance during charging, making them absorb energy more quickly.

The kicker: Li-S batteries are expected to cost less than half the price per kilowatt-hour than Li-ion.

Sulfur is abundant and Zeta’s Li-S batteries use waste materials like methane and unrefined sulfur from various industries. They also ditch expensive, hard-to-source materials like cobalt, graphite, manganese or nickel; which Li-ion is also made from. Zeta’s approach can utilize locally sourced materials and use existing factories to assemble its batteries, slashing CO2 emissions compared to existing battery tech.

They’re safer than Li-ion:

Contrary to what you might think of “sulfur” being in the name, it’s not like what you find in gunpowder, matches or fireworks. The sulfur in Li-S is in a solid state. Li-S batteries don’t have flammable electrolytes like what you’d find in a typical Li-ion battery. It’s often the electrolyte that causes battery fires. They’re not without any flaws, however, as the the use of a lithium metal anode can pose risks like dendrite formation, which can lead to short circuits.

But if you’ve ever seen an EV battery fire, you know it to be highly destructive. Fire departments often have to simply wait until the fire burns itself out when a lithium-ion battery “vents” or explodes. Punctures or thermal runaway (usually from over-charging) lead to chain reactions that create a lot of heat in lithium-ion batteries. Li-S batteries are less prone to this as the sulfur’s chemical reactions are less exothermic. And without ingredients like cobalt and nickel to fuel a fire, Li-S is considered to be safer than the batteries that power modern EVs, your laptop, your phone, et cetera.

With Stellantis aiming to roll out Li-S-powered EVs by 2030, this partnership could redefine how we think about electric mobility.

General Motors has entered into a non-binding agreement to sell its stake in the Ultium Cells electric vehicle battery cell plant in Lansing, Michigan, to its joint venture partner  LG Energy Solution, the company announced in a Dec. 2 press release.

As part of the agreement, LG Energy Solution will have immediate access to the 2.8 million-square-foot facility to start the installation of battery cell manufacturing equipment. The plant is nearing completion and will have an annual capacity of 41 GWh.

GM said the transaction, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2025, will help the company recoup its share of the $2.6 billion investment in the facility.