Powertrain 2020 - The Future Drives Electric (PDF ... - Roland Berger

46 |
Study
The exact chemical make-up of the cathode and the electrolyte can vary,
and precise details are carefully guarded by key players in the field. For the
anode, most manufacturers use a copper foil coated with graphite.
Most of today's Li-Ion batteries produced for consumer electronic goods use
CoO 2 or MnO 2 (cobalt-oxide or manganese-oxide) cathodes. These cathodes
have a proven production process technology. For vehicle applications, however,
the material has a number of drawbacks. Problems include limited
cycle times (the number of charging processes before the battery loses a
significant amount of its energy capacity) and thermal instability in case of
malfunction. For this reason, manufacturers are putting a great deal of effort
into developing an alternative chemical make-up that will meet the requirements
of vehicle applications.
Current focus of R&D
To reach the usual 150,000 km driving range of vehicles, built-in batteries
need to withstand more than 1,000 charging cycles without losing too
much capacity. The batteries must also pass crash and malfunction tests.
Current development efforts also focus on improving energy density,
reducing production costs and speeding up the charging time.
A key lever for improvements is the chemical composition of the electrodes,
especially the cathode, electrolyte and separator material. Researchers are
looking into using different chemical components in conjunction with
lithium.