GM Invest $7M in start-up to double Li-ion battery energy density

General Motors Ventures LLC invested $7 million in Envia Systems to provide GM’s battery engineering team with access to advanced lithium-ion cathode technology that delivers higher cell energy density and lower cost. In a separate agreement, GM has secured the right to use Envia’s advanced cathode material for future GM electrically driven vehicles.

"Skeptics have suggested it would probably be many years before lithium-ion batteries with significantly lower cost and higher capability are available, potentially limiting sales of electric vehicles for the foreseeable future," said Jon Lauckner, President of GM Ventures. "In fact, our announcement today demonstrates that major improvements are already on the horizon."

Other participating investors in Envia are Asahi Kasei and Asahi Glass; as well as current investors Bay Partners, Redpoint and Panagea Ventures. The funding of the investor group totaled $17 million.

"With our high-capacity manganese rich cathode material, Envia is addressing two key issues in the next-generation battery cells – higher capability and lower cost," said Atul Kapadia, founding investor, chairman and CEO of Envia Systems. "The investments announced today from GM and the two new strategic investors, demonstrate the excitement around our technology, as well as the importance of the challenge.

"We believe our battery materials have taken the technology lead that will help lower price points and unlock the market potential for our customers," Kapadia said. "With our technology and products, we believe that Envia is best-positioned to win a significant portion of this very large battery materials market."

Envia’s advanced cathode technology uses inexpensive materials that store more energy per unit of mass than current cathode materials. Since the cathode is a key driver for the overall battery cost, the more energy the cathode delivers, the lower the battery cost because fewer cells are needed.

"Our test results on small-format cells show that Envia’s high-capacity composite cathode material can increase the energy density of lithium-ion cells by up to one-third, at an equivalent level of reliability, safety and durability," said Micky Bly, GM Executive Director for Electrical and Battery Systems. "We estimate this improvement in cell energy density and less expensive material will drive a substantial reduction in cell cost, leading to lower cost battery packs like the one in the Chevy Volt." Envia’s cathode technology also will offer benefits for other devices and applications where low-cost, high-energy density storage solutions are needed."

Currently, Sinkula says, Envia's best lab results are showing over 300 watt-hours per kilogram. Ultimately Envia's goal is to build a battery that has a capacity of 400 watt-hours per kilogram

The Chevy Volt Super Bowl Ad [video]

During Sunday's game, you'll see a new ad for the 2011 Chevy Volt called "Discovery."

You can watch a preview above.

600 kms Range from a 115 kWh Battery pack, Not a Problem!

The New York Times are running a post today about the Kolibri-powered Audi A2, converted by DBM Energy GmbH and Lekker Energie that traveled 375 miles from Munich to Berlin on a single charge back in October 2010.

There seems to be some controversy because the A2 was destroyed in a fire last December while parked in a warehouse. DBM claims that a makeshift battery unit, and not the one used during the supposed record run, was installed at the time. The fire is under police investigation, but it has prompted skeptics to question whether DBM has anything to hide.

The ignorance surrounding this story is staggering. To those who know a little about the technical aspects of EVs, there seems to be nothing remarkable about a small Audi A2 travelling 375 miles (600 kms) using a battery pack with a capacity of 115 kWh. That is more than twice the capacity of the 53 kWh battery pack in a Tesla Roadster which is rated by the EPA at 255 Miles range in normal road use.

In fact, a Tesla owner from Texas recently achieved a new distance record of 347.2 miles (555.5 kms) from a bog standard Roadster on a closed course in California.

It was reported that upon the A2's arrival in Berlin it's 115-kWh battery pack was 80% depleted. Total energy used during it's 375 mile trip being 92 kWh. Dividing 92,000 watt hours by 375 miles gives an energy consumption of 245 watt hours per mile. That is right on the money as far as average electric vehicle energy consumption goes.  A Chevy Volt or a RAV4 EV use approx the same amount of energy per mile, so no surprises there;. Anyone who writes about EVs should be capable of doing this basic EV maths!

The writer goes on to suggest as only 80% capacity was used that this would implying a total range of more than 400 miles. It's fairly common knowledge that Li-ion battery powered EVs do not use 100% of their battery capacity. The Chevy volt uses just 50%, The Tesla Roadster 70%, Nissan Leaf 80% etc.

The current world record for distance on a single charge goes to the Japan Electric Vehicle Club who ran a Daihatsu Mira EV over 627 Miles (1,003.184 kms) on a single charge. The fact the Mira was equipped with a 74 kWh battery pack actually backs up the claim that the DBM Audi A2 was well within it's ultimate potential for maximum distance.

The 'facts' used in the NYT story seem to have been mostly provided by a Peter Hoffmann who publishes a Pro Hydrogen Fuel Cell web site. The impartiality of information from such a biased source would have to be questioned.

Mitsubishi iMiev the biggest selling small-car in Norway

The Mitsubishi iMiev Electric Car is now officially the biggest selling car in its segment in Norway.

Having sold 99 iMievs in January the Mitsubishi EV outsold the Peugeot 107 (87 cars), Toyota Aygo (60), Citroen C1 (54), Toyota IQ (29), Suzuki Alto (27) and Fiat 500 (25).

The iMiEV is on sale in 14 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom.

Mitsubishi plans to sell 5,000 i-MiEVs overseas this fiscal year, including models built for PSA.

Toyota Yaris Hybrid Concept Teaser

Toyota has revealed the first image of its forthcoming Yaris hybrid, a model that will be showcased at the Geneva motor show in March. The firm has also confirmed that its larger Prius model will be a seven-seater in European markets.

The Yaris teaser image, revealed via a company blog website, shows the nose of the car. It’s clearly a development of the model that was revealed recently in Japan as the Vitz, although there are slight changes to the grille (now deeper) and the headlights, which feature strips of LEDs.

There’s also a hint that the intake-esque elements at either side of the bumper will house LED lighting.

The Yaris hybrid is expected to go on sale in 2012, and it will be produced at Toyota’s factory in Valenciennes, France. It’s likely to get a much smaller petrol motor as part of its powertrain; expect it to use a 1.33-litre engine instead of the 1.8-litre unit used in the Prius and Auris.

Toyota also issued a photo of the larger Prius’s badging. It confirms that the car will be called ‘Prius+’ instead of the ‘Prius v’ that will be used in the US. And the blog promises “the versatility of seven seats”, indicating that the European model will be able to cope with more passengers than the five-seat US version.

Both models are being lined up for European debuts at next month’s Geneva motor show.

Williams completes first KERS test

Williams completed a successful first test of its KERS system at Valencia today despite never having run the system fully operational on-track before.

The team did not run the hybrid system during the 2009 season and has abandoned the flywheel hybrid system to develop its own battery-based KERS for the return of the technology this year.

Pastor Maldonado completed a total of 101 laps with the system engaged and technical director Sam Michael was pleased with the reliability after losing three hours of track time on the first day of the test with a KERS problem suffered when the system was not active.

"We turned KERS on today for the first lap and did 100 laps on it," said Michael. "Within five laps we were on full power and we ran it all day.

"We just started running KERS today, although we had bits and pieces on the car before and we haven't had any problems."

Maldonado ended the day seventh fastest overall and fourth fastest 2011 car, meaning that Williams finished the test with a productive day after losing some track time on Tuesday and Wednesday.

"It's been good," said Michael of the test overall. "We basically had five hours of downtime - three hours with the KERS motor problem on day one and then an electrical fault yesterday that cost us two hours. But apart from that, the car ran.

"We got some good mileage on it, understood all of the systems, got temperatures and pressures, seeing what rubs and what doesn't, looking at the internal conditions of the mechanical parts and it's all not bad. We had a few little problems here and there, but it's all solid."

Michael is reserving judgement as to the overall potential of the new Williams FW33, but is confident that the fundamental design has good potential.

"It's too early to tell because you don't know what fuel loads people are running," said Michael. "This is a very peculiar track because the lift/drag ratio is less than 1:1, so you need to get onto some proper tracks before you see anything.

"All of the cars will change before the first race, but there is nothing conceptually on our car that is fundamentally different than any other car, except for probably Renault with its exhaust."

Suck, squeeze, bang, bust: The end of the ICE?

Tim Stevens over at Engadget has written a post today about the death of the internal combustion engine (ICE), using cigarette smoking as a example of how trends can change.

Good to see the 'word' is finally getting out about the gross inefficiency of ICEs. The information referenced by Tim is actually fairly conservative as he's quoting 30% energy efficiency for petrol fueled ICEs but that is when measured at the flywheel. The real figure for an ICE vehicle is closer to just 15% total energy efficiency when measured at the wheels.

Yet even that may be over-stating energy efficiency as much of the remaining 15% used to get the vehicle rolling is also converted into waste heat when braking.

With an electric motor, most of which are 90+% efficient, energy converted into inertia when accelerating a vehicle can be regenerated during braking and reused in the next acceleration cycle.

In some cases, such as in urban stop-start traffic, regen can extend battery range by as much as 50%. This brake regeneration is the principle used in all hybrids to improve overall vehicle fuel efficiency, although it does absolutely nothing to improve ICE inefficiency.

Due to the fundamental energy efficiency of electric motors in both propulsion and braking, the ICE-less Nissan Leaf can to be equipped with a battery having a maximum capacity equivalent to only 0.65 US Gallon (approx 2.5 liters) of gasoline, yet still have the torque of a V6 and 100 miles (160 kms) range. If the ICE version of the Leaf (the Versa) had the same sized fuel tank it would barley cover 20 miles.

In the same way incandescent light bulbs are now banned for sale in countries like Australia, based on the fact that they convert 95% of the energy they consume into waste heat, for that reason alone (and there are PLENTY of other valid reasons), it would seem the shift away from ICEs and towards EVs is fairly inevitable.


Source: Engadget