Think Tesla Model 3 the most popular EV in the world! Electric vehicles are limited by fragile limited lithium ion batteries today, while future models will have much better solid-state sodium & aluminum ion batteries made from safer earth abundant materials. Here we go into a wandering deep dive of sorts about transportation energy in the context of my life experience & global trends that affect everyone!
Electricity magical as an energy for use because it can be made with solar panels, wind turbines, hydroelectric dams, nuclear fission plants, natural gas & other hydrocarbon burning thermal plants. Really seriously, not just the transistor & computers, literally even your brain an electric organ. Your muscles, cell mitochondria, every living thing on earth has electron exchange happening continually.
Energy storage can be done with moving fluids uphill like pumped hydro or using gas turbines with gas compression cylinders, also with electric motor mass block crane storage systems, flywheels & batteries.
Today people incorrectly claim that energy storage too expensive for grid scale operations where tough cost targets of $0.05/kWh expected for competition against on demand natural gas & coal power available 24/7. While wind & new PV solar offer similar costs per kWh, they only produce power intermittently, so renewables penetration into grid power production limited by poor load following & poor capacity factor & nearly non existent development of grid energy storage capacity by most utility companies, especially not in Texas where they did not even maintain the distribution wires or substations correctly //
Most electricity today produced within a few seconds of when its utilized by customers for heating, cooling, lighting, appliances, vehicle charging, computers, networks, manufacturing, material processing, lasers, lights, bulbs, lamps, 3D printing, E-beam cleaning, chemical vapor deposition, vacuum pumps, water pumps, HVAC. In other words, most electric grids lack energy storage capacity, aside from some capacitor based fast flux systems used for power conditioning to improve power quality or stabilize voltage fluctuations in distribution networks.
My first full electric vehicle was a 750w electric kick scooter powered by a 16v hawker cyclone battery pack of sealed AGM chemistry based on traditional lead acid reactions dating back to 1859. That was back in 2006 & this little machine allowed me to circumvent the UW parking fee ripoff. I would drive to college from my home in my 05 Toyota Prius & then park off campus in a free parking zone, then take the fully charged electric folding kick scooter with its charger in my backpack out of the trunk, then would ride it about 1 mile into campus, saving $ hundreds per month in parking fees! This scooter was torn down at its EOL or end of life in 2018, destined to become a lamp in the future :)
Today their are much better electric kick scooters available & I ended up switching to a 2600w peak Segway Mini Pro back on 7/11/2016 & have ridden that one more than 1070km since then. Amazingly the OG lithium ion battery in the Mini Pro still gives up 30km per charge as of 5/26/2021, speaking to the excellent build & component quality of this magnesium work of applied technological art! Its an OG Mini Pro by Ninebot, not that cheap plastic version they are selling lately!
I tried a Nissan LEAF back in 2013 via a 24mo lease, knowing the technology would improve with EV's rapidly & not wanting to be locked in. That $7000 experiment was fun & about 14,000 mi worth. In 2018 I also purchased a used 2016 Nissan LEAF & drove that for 2 years before trading it in for a 2010 Toyota Prius. I miss the Nissan Leaf's, they were the most fun to drive of any car I have ever driven, & that includes the Porsche Turbo I drove when I worked at a luxury car dealership as a teenager. That include the turbo-charged Mazda Miata I was driving to deliver it to a customer.
Unlike the Tesla Model 3, the Nissan Leaf very quiet inside as you accelerate very rapidly with instant torque that will surely put a smile on your face if you push the accelerator pedal down firmly! Off the line acceleration with nearly no noise made the Nissan Leaf super fun to hotrod // jack rabbit from stoplight & feel that linear amazing electric motor torque from 0 RPM onward, which was fantastic up to a bout 35 mph, after which the low peak power output of those drivetrains trailed off, which is fine, they do up to 90mph on the highway, even with a full 4 passengers, though the battery fades really fast at speeds greater than 50mph, where the poor aerodynamics of the LEAF's huge cross sectional frontal area takes a drag inducing toll that's R^3, meaning exponentiation or rapid increases in power required above 50MPH, this is also true from gasoline & diesel vehicles as any hyper miler knows, going 50mph will significantly reduce your fuel consumption vs 70mph - & if you plan on lolly-gagging like that do so in the right lane so other people who have to poop really badly can pass you -- think "I can be a considerate driver hypermiling" I pretend in my mind that I am driving a fully loaded class 8 tractor trailer truck, since they also struggle to go fast up steep hills on the freeway or highway!
Nissan LEAF suffers from a lithium manganese spinel laminate battery technology that was cost efficient for Nissan to Make as far back as 2010, but the air cooled pack suffers capacity fade or range loss when fast charged, when fully charged & when deeply discharged or heated by rapid discharging during heavy acceleration.. An entire battery wiki exists for fading Nissan LEAF battery packs that hold up poorly in hot regions like Arizona or Texas & hold up much better in cooler climates like Alaska.
Tesla developing a $25,000 base price vehicle utilizing the tab-less 4680 cell technology that debuted on the significantly underappreciated Battery Day. Applying more than 5 significant innovations, Tesla was able to boost the energy density, peak power output, charging rate, cycle life, & calendar life all while reducing costs down to only $57/ kWh. When Sony commercialized Li-Ion back in 1991 the cost was nearly $3500/kWh by comparison.
Super & ultra capacitors are much longer lasting & have much high peak performance than chemical batteries & Tesla acquired Maxwell technology, a leading developer of super & ultra capacitors. Capacitors can be combined with batteries in hybrid energy storage systems, an idea long popular with car stereo enthusiasts that put a 3 farad cap with the SLI battery to provide great peak power to their amplifiers.
In electric vehicles, capacitors can provide more energy during acceleration & capture more energy from regenerative braking without applying loads to the battery, enhancing battery life by reducing transient stresses that do not damage capacitors but greatly shorten battery life. Expect to see these type of battery capacitor hybrid energy storage solutions in upcoming EV's from Tesla
Some electric bicycles & scooters & kick scooters can go up to 80 mph, using high rate IMR or LiPo batteries developed for vaporizers & drones & remote control toys, in series parallel packs where more than 60vdc & usually 8,000 mah or more with a dozen or so batteries in series, each battery made of 2 or more cells in parallel. Nissan did that kind of parallel cell & series pack design in their LEAF & Tesla does that in their Models S 3 X & Y.
When batteries are strung together in series, the voltage increases. So if you take 2 lithium 3.7v batteries & put them together in series by connecting the positive of one to the negative of the other, the combined pack voltage now 7.2v. When two batteries of 3,000 mah are put into parallel by connecting the positive of one to the positive of the other & negative of one to the negative of the other, the capacity increases to 6,000 mah.
In electric passenger vehicles 400vdc or 800vdc are the preferred efficient voltage ranges as driving the AC traction motors via an inverter as 500+ VAC enables an energy efficient power system. In smaller power tool & personal electric mobility devices, manufactures aim for 50vdc or higher to get same kind of power peak as a wall outlet connection to a standard 110v 15amp outlet.
See, in AC at 110v, half of the sine wave where work done only 55v, so in DC power batteries if they can get the battery pack close to 55v, they can get thousands of watts of power out to drive powerful electric motors. In our Segway, each wheel an 800w IMP motor drive connected directly to the pneumatic tires, the battery about 54vdc nominal, about to push 2600w peak output for hill climbing with a 200 lb rider // I weigh ~165lbs & able to ride the Segway MP up the steepest hill I could find, beacon signal way in Renton at about 2 mph ///
Keep your lithium ion batteries in your smartphone, laptop, tablet, EV, rideable, toys, partially charged. You can make the Li-Ion batteries last 5X longer if you keep them 30-80% charged & avoid charging to 100% except rarely & avoid draining bellow 10%. Its the top between 90% & 100% charge that damages the lithium ion batteries the most, as does draining the batteries bellow %10 towards 0% state of charge or SOC. Let you thing cool off if its warm, before charging, as charging while hot will shorten the battery life. Many electric cars slow or throttle the charge rate if the cars battery pack hot from driving for exactly this reason, heat damages lithium ion batteries.
Never charge your LiPo or lithium ion if the battery frozen cold as that will cause profound loss of capacity & can even cause the pack to fail by plating out lithium metal inside the battery // Every consumer electric vehicle has a pack warmer function to prevent the EV battery from going below 40 F, as lithium ion batteries also do not perform well when cold or cooler than 44 F.
Sodium Ion & Aluminum Ion & batteries that use oxygen from the air as a cathode will be able to exploit air just like internal combustion engines that make use of atmospheric or pressurized air as the oxidizer to burn the hydrocarbon fuel to push the pistons & crank to drive the wheels & propel the vehicle. Silicon nanowire & solid-state batteries will help to improve longevity & performance while reducing fire hazard & safety issues of traditional lithium ion. Not all lithium batteries are the same.
Today there are more than 12 mainstream lithium ion chemistries, each a box of compromises, while some are way better than others like Lithium Iron Phosphate or LiFePO4. Most lithium ion batteries in consumer electronics, including EVs are based on Lithium Cobalt Oxide as the cathode & graphite or hard carbon as the anode, with a PTFE like electrode separator film saturated on both sides with a flammable hydrocarbon electrolyte inside a aluminized polymer pouch that is horrendously complicated to manufacturer from the brine lake evaporative production of lithium salts to the slow multistage manufacturing of the cells. Check YouTube for "How Lithium Ion Batteries are Made" Its an amazing feat of applied engineering to make the 3.7vdc lithium ion battery pack in your smartphone!
We live in an amazing era of rapid technological change giving rise to increasingly exciting electric vehicles of all kinds. Someday there will even be an electric motorcycle that rivals my 2020 Yamaha MT03 in every way including upfront cost, relative to inflation etc. I suspect at least 15 years before a feasible electric motorcycle can outperform the aforementioned Yamaha & I am also suspicious that Yamaha will be the developer of said machine.
Today Yamaha working with Toyota on innovative electric vehicle motors & motor controllers. Yamaha a motorcycle company, so they will likely apply this innovations to motorcycles & already are at premium price points 3x higher then $6000 out the door price of our MT03 / which achieves ~85 MPG when operated legally & 58 MPG if spirited throttle inputs regularly // the sound of the system really a treat when getting onto freeway onramp! That's one of the coolest & weakest parts of EV's, they are nearly silent, no shifting, 1 speed, some even offering 1 pedal driving experiences. We are nearing the end of ICE only, I suspect nearly all future vehicles will be hybrid electric or plug-in hybrid if not eventually completely fully electric. We have a long way to go with improving battery technology to make enough for billions of privately owned passenger vehicles. You will see vehicle manufacturing companies doing all sorts of technical tricks like turbocharging with direct injection & variable compression & pneumatic fully variable valve control with electronic variable ignition control. The ECU or energize control computer able to tune engines dynamically hundreds of times per second. This gives the $400 billion / annual engine manufacturing sector market security, though the ICE will probably be relegated to a range extending charger generator role in future PHEV's etc. You can expect piston engines & rotary engines & the liquid piston engine & other innovative fuel burning engines to be a party of our future of newly manufactured products until 2050 or later. Eventually fuel will be transitioned to DME & biogasoline & other renewable chemical feedstock fuels that leverage genetic engineering & associated super enzymes to turn agricultural & forest floor debris into clean renewable transpiration fuels like biodiesel, hydro-biodiesel etc.
Electric vehicles offer the kinds of electric power levels needed for autopilot L5 compute hardware to function. Significantly, Tesla announced they are phasing out the use of radar sensors & going to an all vision camera based autopilot system that enables Tesla to collect more real world data to enhance the training set for the in house development AI that will be applied via over the air update to improve autopilot function in many existing & upcoming fully electric vehicles made by Tesla!
Speaking of Tesla, & the Nissan LEAF, there are now millions of electric vehicles on the worlds roadways, almost exclusively powered by limited lithium ion batteries. EOL or end of life recycling of lithium ion a long way from the kind of mature applied tech utilized in scrap steel recycling or lead recycling from lead acid batteries. Redwood Materials pioneering a way to feasibly recover the lithium & cobalt & copper & aluminum from spent EV batteries. Power tools of all kinds & smartphones & smartwatches & tablets & laptops & personal mobility devices like self balancing scooters & electric kick scooters & diagnostic tools & network analysis gear, all sorts of COTS or consumer of the shelf technologies are powered by common Li-Ion batteries, of which nearly all are lithium cobalt oxide chemistries. When the products reach their end of life or EOL, we need to recycle the dangerously flammable lithium ion batteries, not just to keep the trash from catching on fire, but also to recover the lithium & cobalt for reuse in new batteries made from recycled materials.
Lithium mining involves pumping of brine from lakes into large evaporation reservoirs, artificial shallow ponds, where sunlight & wind gradually increase the concentration of the brine salts over a couple or several years. Eventually these salts containing lithium salts are scooped up & further dried & then sent for electrochemical concentration & purification to isolate the Lithium Ions & produce metallic lithium or lithium hydroxide. Global scale production capacity of lithium in this way nearly maxed out natural reserve production rates, which provides an impetus to move to increasing use of lithium recycling technology from Redwood Materials & other polymer bead ion recovery & emerging electro wining technology!
Cobalt manly produced by the DRC or Democratic Republic of the Congo, named after the Congo river, in forced labor, slave or child slave labor operations, making cobalt a conflict minerals. Companies that buy cobalt to make exceptional metals alloys or lithium ion batteries are unintentionally funding brutal regimes that control mining in the DRC - making Cobalt from the DRC a controversial material to use in so many consumer products.
Taking wisdom from Donald Sadoway of MIT & John B Goodenough of UTA (University of Texas, Austin) - we must make batteries out of Earth' abundant minerals to make a bigger positive electromotive & energy storage impacts to help decarbonize energy systems worldwide, especially in the transportation & grid power sectors where air pollution emission are a serious public health problem causing preventable disease from exposure to tailpipe pollutions, but more significantly, especially in the context of flooding in China & sea levels rising, melting polar icecaps of the Earth & draught affecting California with increasing fire risks every year, think Climate Change causing erratic unpredictable seasonably variable changes to weather & climate of the Earth near the biosphere where nearly all life on Earth exists, posing threats to crops & agriculture as well as huge economic threats to globalization & the future ability of mankind to Thrive on Earth.
We are literally pumping toxins into the environments where people live & wondering why so many strange cancers are happening! The relationship between pollution exposure & diseases already formally elucidated repeatedly by science, starting with Tetraethyle Lead removal from gasoline in modern forms of unleaded fuel, excluding that crappy 100LL they still sell to some helicopter pilots operating "cheaper" piston powered helicopters // not to suggest that anything about them is cheap, the 100LL sells for $7.59 per gallon & these machines costs ~$250,000 & up to $400 per hour to operate due to the extremely costly maintenance required regularly for this type of machine. Think a rich mans flight toy in most cases. I have an acquaintance named George C. who made millions installing natural gas recovery systems into trash dumps & then took the profits from this operations to create CG solar a solar energy company that works with commercial & industrial & government customers installing rooftop photovoltaic energy systems. He owns one these 100LL burning piston powered helicopters & told me all about it, the operating & capital costs, maintenance & repairs & strange 100LL fuel required for its high performance 6 cylinder boxer engine by Lychoing. In avgas the lead acts as a valve lubricant & anti-knock agent to prevent detonation or preignition which would damage the engine & cause substantial dangerous power loss in this style of 1980's helicopter.
Heavy bunker oil used in large marine Diesel engines also another dirty burning fuel like coal. In the case of HBO & Coal, the reason logistics companies & large ship operators use this funky fuel due to its very low price compared to refined oil distillates like gasoline, diesel, kerosine, & JP1 or JET-A fuels. Coal utilized by thermal energy plants, cement plants & steels plants because it only costs $65 for a train-car full of coal. In terms of costs per kWh, a thermal plant burning coal can make electricity for $0.035/kWh, much cheaper than Natural Gas or Nuclear & way cheaper than intermittent renewables like wind & solar + energy storage to have the same 24/7 power output, load following & capacity factor that customers require for refrigeration, air conditioning, oil refining, carbon fiber production, heating, lighting, equipment, networking, internet, computers, cryptocurrency mining, finance, credit & debit card function, stock markets & other operations that required consistent always on electricity!
Electricity the most important form of energy & because most electricity today made as its used, we need to add more energy storage. Electric vehicles offer a unique grid energy storage option, when the EV charger is able to communicate with the grid to only charge using off peak or nighttime energy that actually stabilizes the grid & improves power quality for the utility company by creating a more consistent base load capacity that's easily to plan for & easier to provide consistent service too / in other words EV charging on connected smart charges in utility districts that can can communicate with the charger to tell the EV charger when is the best time to charge, during the 8+ hours the vehicle is parked at home charging.
Most EV' owners are also home owners that park in an electrified parking garage where adding an L2 or level 2 charging adapter very simple. I did it in a rental housing using 8-3 cable in a polymer conduit tube to a 14-50 outlet via two 40amp breakers on both legs of the 200amp electrical utility panel / this via a $350 L2 charging cable from Amazon was my Nissan Leaf fast charger that pumped 30mi of range per hour of charging /// I gave the charger to my best friend Jaeson so he can plug it into his 14-50 outlet, since he own his home & unlikely to move & will probably get an electric vehicle in the near future that can make use of it, or if someone visiting him with an EV that needs some faster charging //
It will be a slow iterative transition to decarbonize transportation & move towards fully electric vehicles. Aircraft provide the most challenging mass reduction targets to battery energizers to develop low mass high energy density electrochemical batteries - or batteries that use both chemistry & electrostatic energy storage like capacitors or hybrid capacitor batteries. We are a going to see all kinds of exciting innovation from Tesla & other automakers as they feverishly move too catch up with the global chip shortage since nearly all modern cars & SUV's have dozens over about 100 onboard embedded computer modules like the ECU or engine control unit.
One of the coolest battery technologies coming from spark-plug juggxrnaught NGK, who's expertise in advanced ceramics at the core of Kyocera ceramic knives, these same super ceramics like zirconia doped alumina (think amazing dental crowns or ceramic Apple Watch), will enable fireproof batteries that work just as well super hot as they do at room temperature. The cool part about engineered ceramics that they can tuned for ion permeability, think of Catalytic Converters & the ceramic cores that convert toxic exhaust gases like unburned HC or hydrocarbon into non toxic H2O or water & CO2 or carbon dioxide. Typical modern cars have all sorts of cool emission controls that reduce tailpipe emissions such that per gallon burned, a modern car releases 25x less pollutants than a carbureted typical lawn mower engine.
I am suspicious that many of the 1000+ patients Toyota has filed around solid-state lithium ion batteries for their upcoming EV's will leverage technology from both NGK & Kyocera in terms of application of advanced ceramics in the electro-separator or cell housing for hot always on fully charge without damage batteries that way better than the common limited lithium ion batteries of today!
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