Gali at Hyperchange has sources who say Apple has been testing it’s EV battery. The Apple EV battery pack is almost ready to be driving around the road. His source told him there are 312 cells in the pack, and its manufactured by Toshiba.
Gali says the Apple-Toshiba battery is Lithium titanate.
Above – Schematic representation of the perovskite crystal structure of lithium lanthanum titanate. (Image: Fei Du / Jilin University)
Limiting Factor says – If Apple has an 800-volt pack, that means 2.56 volts for each cell if there are 312 cells as Gali suggested. If they hit 2.56 volts, that already looks like it might be an improvement on typical LiT.
In June, 2020 there was an article and paper about lithium titanate batteries.
Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and at Jilin University in Changchun / China have investigated a promising anode material for future high-performance batteries: lithium lanthanum titanate with a perovskite crystal structure (LLTO). As the team reports in the journal Nature Communications, LLTO can improve the energy density, power density, charge rate, safety and life of batteries without the need to reduce particles from the micrometer to the nanometer scale.
Nature Communications – Lithium lanthanum titanate perovskite as an anode for lithium ion batteries
Abstract
Conventional lithium-ion batteries embrace graphite anodes which operate at potential as low as metallic lithium, subjected to poor rate capability and safety issues. Among possible alternatives, oxides based on titanium redox couple, such as spinel Li4Ti5O12, have received renewed attention. Here we further expand the horizon to include a perovskite structured titanate La0.5Li0.5TiO3 into this promising family of anode materials. With average potential of around 1.0 V vs. Li+/Li, this anode exhibits high specific capacity of 225 mA h g−1 and sustains 3000 cycles involving a reversible phase transition. Without decrease the particle size from micro to nano scale, its rate performance has exceeded the nanostructured Li4Ti5O12. Further characterizations and calculations reveal that pseudocapacitance dictates the lithium storage process and the favorable ion and electronic transport is responsible for the rate enhancement. Our findings provide fresh impetus to the identification and development of titanium-based anode materials with desired electrochemical properties.
Elon Tweeted About a Different Apple EV Rumor
Elon Musk commented that a monocell battery would not work. The Monocell was mentioned in a Reuters article on the Apple EV.
Strange, if true.
– Tesla already uses iron-phosphate for medium range cars made in our Shanghai factory.
– A monocell is electrochemically impossible, as max voltage is ~100X too low. Maybe they meant cells bonded together, like our structural battery pack?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 22, 2020
SOURCES – Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Limiting Factor, Hyperchange, Elon Musk, Reuters
Written By Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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Really heavy? I'm thinkin' grid storage. Transit busses, sure. The rest listed have a problem with battery weight subtracting from legal gross weight capacity. The scales and CV enforcement pickup trucks are everywhere and it's real damn easy to go over weight with a diesel or propane rig.
Lithium Titanate has a specific energy similar to NiMH. There must've been a very significant battery breakthrough in this approach, or it's time to sell your Apple stock.
End user price can typically be higher when it comes to Apple. As long as the battery is technically OK, a higher price may be acceptable to the Apple market.
IMO, this battery chemistry is ideally suited to things like busses, garbage trucks, last-mile delivery vehicles, etc. Anything that routinely covers a known, short-ish distance on a daily basis. The cycle life is truly exceptional with some manufacturers (XALT) claiming cycle lives approaching 100,000 cycles to 80% of capacity. At that point you're talking about drivetrain lives being measured in decades.
TBH my current "dream" home involves building a well-insulated poured concrete house on a hill, on a farm, with an artesian well, solar panels, and an LTO battery pack 🙂
LTO batteries are like ultracapacitors that can fully charge in 6 minutes with 30k cycles with 10C to 100C discharge, and operate fine down to -40C. Yinlong and Lishen are some current manufacturers. Current costs are about $20 per 30Ah @2.5V. The catch is that they are heavy with only around ~80Wh/kg. If Apple and Toshiba have brought that up to 225Wh/kg now that's great.
By 2025? Really?
Yawn
Cost? Charge time? Thems be the questions that interest me