Electric cars and batteries could last over 20 years with new aluminum coatings

Battery material testing machines that Tesla and Jeff Dahn h ve developed enabled them to test new chemistries more accurately and much faster. This has enabled significant discoveries for the longevity of batteries.

Aluminum coated batteries lasted longer than any other material.

Novonix is a specialized start-up company spun out of Dr. Jeff Dahn’s lab at Dalhousie University. We have expertise in materials and cell testing, with strong focus on the use of High Precision Coulometry for lifetime evaluation of lithium-ion cells. Novonix has spent the last year developing industry leading high precision chargers able to measure the coulombic efficiency of cells to less than 20 ppm noise (typically less than 10 ppm) and to better than 50 ppm accuracy. Novonix offers cell testing services on our in-house high precision chargers, sales of high precision charger systems along with materials testing services.

Tesla and Panasonic are planning to start production of longer life battery cells for vehicles, starting with the Model 3, at Gigafactory 1 by June 2017. Tesla’s will use aluminum in its chassis. Those cars and the batteries could last 20 years.

Dahn’s research was focusing on Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NMC) battery cells, which Tesla uses for its stationary storage products (Powerwall and Powerpack), and the first cell production at Gigafactory 1 was for those products.

Dahn explained that by increasing the lifetime of those batteries, Tesla is reducing the cost of delivered kWh for its residential and utility-scale projects. He gave examples of the costs at $0.23 per kWh for residential solar with storage and $0.139 per kWh for utility-scale.