NEC increases electric vehicle battery capacity 30 percent

[Ajax]

NEC has been focusing on improving electric vehicle batteries recently and has now managed to increase the capacity of high voltage, long life manganese lithium-ion batteries by 30% using a new cathode and anode design.

The Japanese company achieved this by partly replacing the lithium manganese oxide with nickel in the cathodes and then combining them with graphite anodes to offer an output voltage of 4.5V. Typical car batteries today only achieve 3.8V.

A fluorinated solvent was also required to stop the new electrode from decomposing the polycarbonate-based electrolyte quickly. Once added, NEC was able to achieve a recharge cycle of 500 charges while retaining 80% capacity in the battery. As this is only a prototype battery the number of cycles is sure to be improved upon before they reach production.


NEC increases electric vehicle battery capacity 30 percent

 

[flecc]

All of our lithium batteries use graphite anodes, the research in this area being limited since the anode has much less effect on their performance than the cathode, the latter where nearly all the effort has been. A number of companies are using a variety of cathode variants, the most successful being either the compound multi-element or the iron based ones. As ever, the claims are numerous, the successful outcomes scarce.

A couple of research bodies have stepped out of line and researched the anodes, but other than a report on promising results with carbon nanotubes which look too expensive an option, not much has happened there.