Tesla battery researchers at Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie University have published a new paper detailing an electric vehicle (EV) battery that could last 100 years before needing to be replaced.
Tesla’s Advanced Battery Research division, founded in 2016, is led by Dr. Jeff Dahn at Dalhousie University in Canada and aimed to develop a nickel-based battery with considerably better lifetime than current EV batteries.
Tesla renews Canadian connection with Jeff Dahn and Dalhousie University
In a research paper titled ‘Li[Ni0.5Mn0.3Co0.2]O2 as a Superior Alternative to LiFePO4 for Long-Lived Low Voltage Li-Ion Cells’ published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Dahn and his team describe a nickel-based battery that would be able to overcome the energy density and durability limitations of a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery, while offering a vastly improved life cycle that could reach 100 years under optimal conditions.
“NMC cells, particularly those balanced and charged to 3.8 V, show better coulombic efficiency, less capacity fade and higher energy density compared to LFP cells and are projected to yield lifetimes approaching a century at 25 °C.”
That would be an order of magnitude improvement of current EV batteries. Tesla currently estimates their batteries will last between 300,000 and 500,000 miles (480,000km to 640,000km) or over 20 years before needing replacing.
A 100 year battery would obviously outlive the car itself, meaning these batteries could be reused not only in other vehicles, but also in a variety of other applications many times over.
You can read the full research paper below.
Aiken_2022_J._Electrochem._Soc._169_050512Source: Electrek
