Skip to main content

Breakthrough battery could revolutionise cost, range and safety of electric vehicles

Envia Systems, based in California, has announced test results that verify the company’s next-generation rechargeable battery has achieved the highest recorded energy density of 400 Watt-hours/kilogram (Wh/kg) for a rechargeable lithium-ion cell. When commercialised, this 400 Wh/kg battery is expected to slash the price of a 500km range electric vehicle by cutting the cost of the battery pack by more than 50 per cent. The testing of Envia’s next-generation lithium-ion battery was performed by the Electroche
March 23, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
4252 Envia Systems, based in California, has announced test results that verify the company’s next-generation rechargeable battery has achieved the highest recorded energy density of 400 Watt-hours/kilogram (Wh/kg) for a rechargeable lithium-ion cell. When commercialised, this 400 Wh/kg battery is expected to slash the price of a 500km range electric vehicle by cutting the cost of the battery pack by more than 50 per cent.

The testing of Envia’s next-generation lithium-ion battery was performed by the Electrochemical Power Systems Department at the 4253 Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Crane, Indiana, under the sponsorship of ARPA-E. Tests at various cycling rates at NSWC confirmed that Envia’s automotive battery cell demonstrated energy density between 378-418 Wh/kg for rates between C/3 to C/10 for a 45 Amp-hour (C/3) cell. Similar cells have been cycling in Envia’s test labs for over 300 cycles. NSWC Crane will also test these cells to validate cycling performance.

“Since the inception of Envia, our product team has worked tirelessly and logged over 25 million test channel hours to optimally develop each of the active components of the battery: Envia's proprietary Si-C anode, HCMR cathode and EHV electrolyte," said Dr. Sujeet Kumar, Envia Systems co-founder, president & CTO.  “Rather than just a proof-of-concept of energy density, I am pleased that our team was successful in actually delivering 400 Wh/kg automotive grade 45 Ah lithium-ion rechargeable cells.”

“Envia’s new battery technology represents exactly the kind of innovation and breakthroughs that ARPA-E is looking for from the American research and development community,” said ARPA-E director Arun Majumdar.  “We hope that this low-cost and high-density battery technology enables widespread adoption of electric vehicles across the country and around the world.”

Envia was awarded grants by both the 4258 Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) and the 4259 California Energy Commission in 2010 to develop high energy density batteries for electric vehicles. 4248 General Motors Ventures participated in an equity investment round of US$17 million in 2011.

Related Content

  • BMW and Toyota agree mid- to long-term research collaboration
    March 26, 2012
    BMW Group and Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) concerning a mid- to long-term collaboration on next-generation environment-friendly technologies.
  • Historic milestone for EVs claimed
    April 17, 2012
    Utah State University Research Foundation's Energy Dynamics Laboratory has announced that it has operated the first high-power, high-efficiency wireless power transfer system capable of transferring enough energy to quickly charge an electric vehicle. The lightweight, low-profile system demonstrated 90 per cent electrical transfer efficiency of five kilowatts over an air gap of 10 inches. The demonstration at EDL's North Logan, Utah, facility further validates that electric vehicles can efficiently be charg
  • Future traffic management needs new thinking, new technology
    January 23, 2012
    One of the biggest problems facing US ITS professionals, says Georgia DOT's Hugh Colton, is the constrained thinking which is sometimes forced upon those making procurement decisions. It is time, he says, to look again at how we do things. In the November/December 2010 edition of this journal, Pete Goldin interviewed Joseph Sussman, chairman of the US's ITS Program Advisory Committee. Amongst other observations that Sussman made was that, technologically, ITS in the US is 10 years behind that in the world-l
  • Chinese-Polish consortium to build electric buses
    February 7, 2013
    A Chinese electric vehicle consortium led by the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) has signed agreements to help develop an electric bus network in Poland. Other members of the consortium are BIT subsidiary BIT Huachuang Electric Vehicle Technology, CITIC Guoan Mengguli Power Science and Technology and Shanghai Dianba New Energy Technology. According to the agreements signed with Warsaw University of Technology and Polish power company Tauron Polska Energia, the Chinese group and Tauron will establish