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Automakers race to control next-generation battery technology

    WOBURN, Mass. Already far behind Asian manufacturers in building batteries for electric cars, American automakers and their suppliers are racing to develop a new generation of batteries that are cheaper, can hold more energy and charge faster.

    It’s a global competition with huge economic implications for car makers, small battery start-ups and car buyers, who in a few years will be choosing from a dizzying array of electric cars using different types of batteries as the combustion engine era moves on.

    The chemical composition of batteries – a technical topic that was the province of engineers – has become one of the most discussed topics in the boardrooms of General Motors, Toyota, Ford Motor and Volkswagen, as well as in the White House.

    With financial and technological backing from the government, these giant companies are embracing startups working to recreate the battery so that they don’t get left behind by the industrial revolution unleashed by the electric car.

    Automakers’ ability to master battery technology could help determine which companies are thriving and which are being overtaken by Tesla and other electric vehicle companies.

    Batteries will help determine the price of new cars and could become the defining characteristic of vehicles. Like the megapixels on cameras or the processing speeds of computer chips that consumers were once obsessed with, battery characteristics will be the yardstick by which cars and trucks are judged and bought.

    “This will be the new brand differentiation of the future – the battery in electric vehicles,” said Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s Chief Product Platform and Operations Officer. “So we’re making a huge effort.”

    Batteries, of course, will also play a central role in the fight against climate change by helping move cars, trucks and the energy sector away from oil, coal and natural gas.

    Automakers are taking a crash course in battery chemistry as demand for electric cars increases. Companies need to figure out how to make batteries cheaper and better. Today, batteries can account for a quarter to a third of the cost of electric cars. And most of those batteries are made by a few Asian companies.

    Even Tesla, the dominant electric car maker, is relying on Asian suppliers and trying to get more production in-house.

    President Biden this month encouraged companies to move a larger portion of the battery supply chain to the United States. The Russian invasion of Ukraine underlined the strategic importance of such efforts. Volkswagen was forced to temporarily close its main electric vehicle factory in Germany after fighting disrupted supplies of parts made in western Ukraine.

    Auto giants like Stellantis, owner of Ram and Jeep, spend money on start-ups like Factorial Energy, which has fewer than 100 employees in an office park in Woburn, near Boston.

    Faculty managers, who have stopped answering phone calls from automakers offering bags of cash, are developing a battery that can charge faster, hold more energy and be less likely to overheat than today’s batteries.

    “Money can come and go,” said Siyu Huang, co-founder of Factorial, who began experimenting with battery technology as a graduate student at Cornell University. “We want to deliver the safest battery and change the way people live.”

    Top officials in the Biden administration have said they want to help, acknowledging that the United States has done a poor job of taking advantage of battery technologies made domestically. Many of those inventions have spawned a huge industry in China.

    The Energy Department is considering funding companies that make batteries or supply the parts or essential minerals needed to build them. The agency already has at least 10 pending applications pending totaling more than $15 million to support these battery-related projects, according to an agency count.

    Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg said last month that a failure to innovate had damaged his hometown, South Bend, Ind., once home to Studebaker, in the 1960s.

    “Innovation is central to the past, present and future for our auto industry, and we see that now with the opportunity for America to lead the electric vehicle revolution,” he said.

    The most immediate change is in the building blocks of batteries.

    Most lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles are based on nickel, manganese and cobalt. But some automakers, including Tesla and Ford, are switching to using batteries in at least some vehicles that rely on lithium iron phosphate, which is popular in China.

    These LFP batteries, as they are called, cannot store as much energy per pound, but they are much cheaper and last longer.

    Tesla plans to offer LFP batteries in cheaper, shorter-range electric vehicles. Ford plans to use them in a number of trucks sold under the Ion Boost Pro brand to fleet owners.

    “It could be delivery, it could be plumbers, electricians, landscapers working in a fixed geographic area,” said Mr. Thai-Tang, Ford’s president.

    Ford is partnering with South Korea’s SK Innovation to make its batteries, but it hopes to bring much of that production to the United States, Mr. Thai-Tang said. “That will reduce some of the geopolitical and only logistics cost challenges.”

    But the LFP battery is not a complete solution. Teslas using these batteries can only travel about 270 miles on a charge, compared to about 358 miles for comparable models powered by nickel and cobalt batteries. Also, LFP batteries can lose some of their power when the temperature drops below freezing and take longer to charge.

    Ford’s new F-150 electric pickup, which has not gone on sale but already has 200,000 reservations, will rely on batteries with a higher percentage of high-energy nickel, also made by SK Innovation.

    Tesla said in February that it had has already built a million cells for its next-generation “4680” battery, which it has come to use in its Model Y crossovers. The automaker’s CEO Elon Musk has said the battery will have 16 percent more range due to its signature honeycomb design. “It’s hard until it’s discovered, and then it’s easy,” he said in 2020.

    GM claims its Ultium battery cell requires 70 percent less cobalt than the cells used in the Chevrolet Bolt electric hatchback. The company has added aluminum to its battery. The GMC Hummer pickup, which GM recently started selling, is the first vehicle with this battery.

    GM, in partnership with South Korean LG Chem, is building a $2.3 billion battery plant in Lordstown, Ohio. It is one of at least 13 major battery plants under construction in the United States.

    Batteries are already becoming important to car branding – GM is showing ads for Ultium batteries. It adds to the need for them to ensure that these batteries are reliable and safe. GM had to recall the Bolt to fix a battery failure that could lead to fires.

    Many automakers are eager to reduce their reliance on cobalt, in part because it comes mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it is mined by Chinese companies or by freelancers who sometimes employ children.

    “It is the possible violation of human rights, child labor or artisanal miners who dig under very difficult conditions – that is the biggest concern we have,” said Markus Schäfer, a senior executive at Mercedes-Benz responsible for research and development.

    The car industry is also concerned about nickel, because Russia is a major supplier of the metal.

    A team of about 25 government scientists from the Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee wants to take these innovations even further.

    In addition to an experimental cobalt-free alternative, conventional batteries for electric cars have been set up. Scientists spend weeks charging and discharging them to measure how they perform. Ilias Belharouak, who runs the Oak Ridge Battery Manufacturing Center, said the goal was to cut battery costs by as much as half, increase their range to more than 300 miles and reduce charge times to 15 minutes or less. (Current batteries typically take 30 minutes to 12 hours to charge, depending on the vehicle and outlet.)

    Some of this work will be funded by $200 million that the Department of Energy allocated to seven national labs late last year. The department is hosting a “virtual pitch fest” this month where battery designers present ideas to scientists, government officials and industry executives.

    Factorial Energy and other US start-ups, such as Solid Power and QuantumScape, want to revolutionize the way batteries are constructed, not just change their ingredients. Batteries today rely on a liquid solution for the electrolyte that allows the flow of electricity between different components.

    Solid-state batteries have no liquid electrolyte and so will be lighter, store more energy and charge faster. They are also much less likely to ignite and therefore require less cooling equipment.

    Most major automakers have placed big bets on solid-state technology.

    Volkswagen has staked its money on QuantumScape, based in San Jose, California. BMW and Ford bet on Solid Power in Louisville, Colorado. GM has invested in SES AI Corporation, which grew out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is based in Woburn.

    But it’s not clear how quickly solid-state batteries will arrive. Stellantis has said it hopes to introduce mass-market vehicles with those batteries by 2026, but executives at other companies say the technology may not be widely available until around 2030.

    Which car manufacturer is the first to offer solid-state batteries has a huge advantage.

    Ms. Huang of Factorial said it was not unusual for her and her business partner, Alex Yu, to work through the night as they raced to meet technical benchmarks.

    She is motivated, she said, by memories of the polluted air she breathed growing up near Shanghai. “Our company’s founding mission is to strive for a fossil-free future,” said Ms. Huang. “That is what I strive for in my life.”

    Ultimately, Factorial, in which Mercedes and Hyundai have also invested, aims to build factories around the world – an ambitious goal as the company has just moved to a second floor.

    In a series of labs, workers wearing white coats and intense expressions are testing prototype cells.

    Despite this frenzied activity, the auto industry could struggle to meet demand for new batteries because the world cannot mine and process all the raw materials it needs, especially for lithium, said Andrew Miller, chief operating officer at Benchmark Minerals Intelligence. , which battery manufacturers and supplies worldwide.

    “All the models that are announced, everything that those companies want to do in the next three years,” said Mr. Miller, “I don’t know where the raw materials come from.”