Battery technologies in development could open the door to widespread adoption of electric vehicles by cramming more energy into a cheaper, smaller package.
Why it matters: Consumers won’t embrace electric vehicles until they cost about the same as (or less than) gasoline cars and provide a comparable driving range — around 300 miles between charges.
- But at an average price of about $62,000, EVs are still too expensive for many, and the high cost of lithium-ion batteries is mostly to blame.
- After falling for a decade, battery prices rose in 2022 because of higher raw materials costs.
What’s happening: Scientists are trying to develop inexpensive, lightweight next-generation batteries that do it all — hold lots of energy, release power quickly, operate safely and last a long time.
- Battery development, however, is a game of trade-offs. High performance on one criterion generally means lower performance on another.
- A battery with higher “energy density” (meaning it’s designed to store more energy) could overheat and catch fire, for example.
- The challenge is finding the right mix of materials and chemical processes to optimize performance across the board.
What to watch: Most of the industry is betting on solid-state batteries as that game-changing solution.
- Solid-state batteries replace the gooey liquid electrolyte that carries lithium ions between the cathode and the anode with a thin ceramic or sulfide-based material that does the same job.
- These next-gen batteries are expected to store twice as much energy as today’s lithium-ion batteries — potentially doubling the range of an electric car to 600 miles or more — and possibly recharge in one-third the time.
- They’d also be lighter, cheaper and less likely to burst into flames, scientists say.
- Many companies are working on the technology, including automakers such as Toyota and Nissan, battery giants Panasonic and Samsung, and startups including QuantumScape and Solid Power.
Yes, but: Despite encouraging lab results, the industry has yet to prove it can scale the technology for mass production, meaning solid-state batteries are still five or 10 years away from powering cars.
Meanwhile, better performance and lower costs can be squeezed from today’s EV batteries in other ways, such as adding silicon to graphite anodes or shifting to pure “lithium-metal” anodes, both of which are in development.