this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 89 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Battery tech has still come a long way since say 10 years ago, even though the "next gen" stuff hasn't made it to scaled production. Looks like this is the beginning of scaled production, though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Looks like this is the beginning of scaled production, though.

Production is a tiny link in the supply chain.

According to the article they've sent them to manufacturers for testing and that's it.

Even if they were able to make them they'd still be impossibly expensive for decades, as the implications of such a technology would be gargantuan.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Nah, see the battery density graph here. Batteries have made great progress already, and it's accelerating because suddenly there are trillions of dollars on the line for anyone that can make big strides in battery technology.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

Nah, see the battery density graph

Yah, I see your battery density graph and the batteries in question would blow a hole in that chart:

Samsung’s oxide solid-state battery technology boasts an energy density of 500 Wh/kg, nearly double the 270 Wh/kg density of mainstream EV batteries.

That's without even getting into the charging rates, which are impossible because you can't even deliver power to the car at that rate, even if it could take it.

suddenly there are trillions of dollars on the line for anyone that can make big strides in battery technology.

What makes you think that's "sudden"?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Yah, I see your battery density graph and the batteries in question would blow a hole in that chart, and several charts above it.

I'm not sure if we are looking at the same chart. The chart goes up to 500 Wh/kg, the same as this new Samsung battery as per the original article. It's may well be the same battery that gives the chart that value, but notice the years prior it gets higher and higher up to that value.

It might be 10 years away from being the mainstream battery but the battery technology that was 10 years away 9 years ago is almost here.

What makes you think that’s “sudden”?

I was meaning how EVs created a consumer market for huge batteries where prior to that the biggest battery in your house might have been a power tool. But you're right, there was a premium market for emerging battery tech and it increases along a scale like anything else.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

It might be 10 years away from being the mainstream battery

Yes, that was my point, thank you.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I mean, lithium cells were used for fringe use cases 20 years ago, now they are seemingly everywhere. The difference with this tech is that they know it's currently expensive, so are aiming for use cases where the added cost is justifed. Give it 5 years and the tech will more than likely become easier to produce, lowering costs. That and sodium batteries are probably going to dramatically lower cost for grid storage, which should make it easier to have consistent power delivery.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I don't understand what this has to do with my comment. I'm not disputing that battery technology is improving. I'm disputing that there's going to be any sort of quantum leap in capacity or charging speed in the near future.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I read your argument as being that since we aren't quantum leaping ahead with technology, it's a bit of a wash with the pushes for future battery standards. But my point is that this battery update, while not being a 10x in performance, is more likely a 2x and will be viable to scale with pricing decreases as time progresses. I'm in the trucking sector, and one of the things I have noticed about transitioning to electric heavy duties is that a lot of the issues aren't completely on battery density, but rather that there isn't an infrastructure that can charge the batteries at high voltage without beefing up the power grid around stations. If you could instead give a cheap enough battery backup to create a buffer that fills up during lower use hours, then a lot more of the solutions for that could charge ev trucks quickly would make more sense (it's actually what has made the Tesla Semi have such good numbers). It's stuff like this that actually might push the transition, which has to happen, not waiting for next quantum leap.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

I read your argument as being that since we aren't quantum leaping ahead with technology, it's a bit of a wash with the pushes for future battery standards.

I've no idea how you got that in your head. I'm assuming it's Freudian.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Michael Thackeray filed a patent under Argonne National Laboratory for the leading EV battery chemistry worldwide today, Lithium Nickel-Manganese-Cobalt Oxide (NMC), sometime around 2007-2008.

The first cars with that specific technology started coming out in the US market in 2013/2014 IIRC, with EVs coming out before then basing their battery chemistry on NCA (Tesla) or LMO (Nissan Leaf & Chevy Volt).

That's a 5-7 year timeframe from laboratory to mass production.

If you consider new technologies today like Samsung's battery in this article, and make the not so unrealistic leap that we're better at battery production today than in 2013/2014, it's very possible that we see this technology hit the market in 5 years or less.

Technology always improves. It's CAPEX that hinders it, and I'm willing to bet that there are financial interests out there to keep the main battery chemistry NMC and secure steady profits.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

There is a ~~solid state~~ sodium battery factory being built in Japan, I think, and one in America. (Yes, I mixed up my two battery technologies, a common problem in a stagnant field...) But yes, real life isn't a game, you can't immediately use new tech as soon as it becomes viable, and factories take time to build. That doesn't mean that advances haven't been constantly occurring, just like advances continued to occur with NiMH battery technology a decade after lithium was mainstream. Partly, no doubt, because factories are expensive, they take time to build, and companies like to maximize the profits from their investments.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

That doesn't mean that advances haven't been constantly occurring

No one said they haven't. Please note the "world changing" part of my comment. I'm not talking about iterative advancements, I'm talking about things like solid-state and sodium batteries. Things we've been reading about for decades that are quantum leaps in battery technology.

In the case of the OP, we're talking about doubling battery density and charging speeds well in excess of what you could actually ever get to the car.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 months ago

As I mentioned in my other response, our battery capacity and longevity has increased by a factor of 10 in the last 30 years. Charging capacity has increased significantly, as well. And the only reason we don't have more powerful chargers is because we haven't needed them. It will certainly require a different configuration to charge twice as fast, probably with local power storage to reduce the burden on the electrical grid, but the only technical challenge is the power draw, and there are a number of ways to avoid that.