Battery Storage Technology for Vehicle

Aasim
August 2018

Abstract
This article explore the present trends and future option in battery technology
for electric and hybrid electric vehicle. Development of energy, efficient, large
life cycle, lower cost batteries are the recent research interest around the globe.
Technologies that have been tested over the time such as lead-acid batteries
are still in use however, newer technologies like lithium ion batteries are also
occupying the researchers interest as well as its commercialization. As batteries
are proving to be more fuel efficient, better batteries with light weight and
higher efficiency is desirable for the electric vehicle. Various criteria on which
battery performance are judged are explained. Different batteries that had been
developed over the year are studied, their commercialization over the year are
explored. Newer trends in the battery technologies and there commercialization
are also studied.

Introduction
Electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles are new trends in mobility now a
days. This is due to continued interest in renewable energy and low carbon
emission. Battery is one of the viable component of EVs and had been a prob-
lem right from the early days of EVs inception. The durability of the battery
is one of the deciding factor of the performance of EVs. High specific power
of the baatery will give longer transportation distance while high specific en-
ergy will give acceleration. A large charging and discharging cycle will give an
overall usability while its lower cost will boost its commercialization. It was
lead-acid batteries that was initially used in EVs its low energy density forced
EVs manufacture to look for other viable options. Nickel cadmium batteries
were also used and the non-environmental nature of cadmium was drawback.
After that Nickel metal hydride batteries were used. Now a days research are
going on lithium based batteries. Lithium-ion batteries though costly are now
commercialized by Tesla. Recends trends show researchers as well as industries
interest in lithium-sulfur and lithium-air batteries.

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Current Status
Current status in battery technology for electric vehicles can be analyzed under
various head such as [3]
• Specific power density: This value signify that the internal resistance of
battery is low and hence the low power losses. This gives high power
capability.
• Specific energy density: This value is a measure of the capability of supply-
ing energy to the system. This can be calculated from the electrochemcial
action inside battery.

• Energy efficiency: This is the ratio of the energy supplied to the energy
absorbed. A low value signifies that the loss in the energy transfer is high
which will manifest as heat and should be removed in order to keep system
running.
• Life cycle: This gives the number of charging-discharging cycle for a given
battery before it exhaust. Its value depends on the depth of the discharge,
number of charging and discharging cycle and average state of charge.
• Calender life cycle: This is a measure of the aging process of a battery.
This corresponds to the life time of battery before its failure when not in
use.

• Cost: One of the most deciding feature in actual implementation and can
be associated with the quality of the battery.
The research trends in battery technology considering the patent filed gives us
the trend that the main focus of the researchers are in fuel cell batteries followed
by lead acid batteries and lithium ion batteries [10]. Though initially around
mid 90s, it was lead acid batteries that was mostly used in electric vehicles (EV).
Beside this nickel cadmium and sodium sulphur batteries where also used. GM
Electrovette used nickel-zinc batteries [7] while Toyota Prius also uses Nickel
metal hydride (NiMH) batteries [1]. Still today, some of the EVs use NiMH
batteries. It was the low cost and easily available raw material that was the
driving force behind lead-acid batteries. However, when less weight and small
operating distance is involved, lead acid batteries are best suited because of its
intrinsic safety beside low cost. There is improvement in energy density when
moving from lead acid to nickel cadmium batteries however cadmium uses is
not very environmental friendly. The cadmium was then replaced by metal hy-
dride to prepare NiMH which is more environmental friendly but more prone
to temperature. Also there is an enhancement in energy density when moving
from NiCd to NiMH, however the recent trends shows a very small group of
researchers are involved in NiMH [9]. PanasonicEV, Kokam, Ovonichin-Kobe,
and Saft are into the business of nickel hydride and lithium ion batteries for
hybrid EV [6]. Due to tested and mature technology NiMH still find its place in

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the list of batteries used in EVs today. The main contender in energy storage
for EVs are the lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion are basically a generic term
involving a combination of various element along with other elements. Lithium
ion batteries are associated with high specific power density, high specific en-
ergy density, longer life time [2]. Tesla Roadster is the first EV on production
scale to use lithium ion batteries as its energy source. Two variants in lithium
ion batteries are manufactured: high energy batteries and high power batter-
ies. Zinc air batteries are also used in EVs particularly rail cars, buses and
motorcycle in countries like USA, Singapore and Mexico . Zinc air batteries
have high energy density, small charging time then lead-acid batteries but they
have fails to charge through regenerative braking and have low specific power
[2]. The future trends in battery technology is seen in lithium air batteries
which is expected to have more energy density then lithium ion batteries [8]. It
was reported that Toyota and BMW are investing in the research of lithium-air
batteries[5]. The energy density of lithium-air battery is expected to be 5-10
times more than that of lithium-ion battery for same weight and about twice for
same volume. Advances are also made in the field of lithium-sulfur battery. It is
reported that lithium-sulfur batteries have high specific energy then lithium-ion
batteries but it is limited by life cycle, high discharging rate which is stopping
its commercialization [4].

References
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