Renault electric cars could use solid-state batteries with zero cobalt until 2025, according to Gilles Normand, Renault's superior electric vehicle vice president. The technology will come from the Ionic Materials, in which the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance invested 65 million dollars in 2018.

The new technology will rival the lithium-ion batteries that are currently the most commonly used type in the automotive industry. A compact polymer electrolyte makes this new battery safer (the liquid electrolyte in lithium-ion batteries is extremely dangerous), as well as potentially more efficient and less sensitive to temperature.

Removing cobalt dependence – a valuable metal that is currently essential for high-performance lithium-ion batteries – is a key target for every battery manufacturer. Cobalt is costly and there are concerns about the working conditions of those who are mining it. According to the Ionic Materials website, the company is trying to build the batteries in Massachusetts, USA, although the factory is not yet built.


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The German giant in order to achieve the further development and the most massive production of the necessary for the lithium-ion battery vehicles launched an innovative technological pilot line of construction in the Salzgitter of Germany.

According to Volkswagen, this investment will bring 1,000 new jobs by 2023-2024 to Salzgitter, of which 300 will result from the testing and production of batteries, while 700 still from its consortium with the Swedish Northvolt that provides the erection and operation in the area of a battery factory within the same period.




The amount that Volkswagen will invest in its related actions will exceed EUR 1 billion. In the first phase 100 million euros will be given to acquire know-how in the development and production of 16 gigawatt batteries, while approximately 900 m euros are destined for the factory mentioned above, the erection of which will start in 2020.



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Battery technology is expected to evolve rapidly in the near future where new techniques and materials are expected to give significant improvement to the need for more and more electric vehicles. But how do batteries fitted to modern electric vehicles operate? In the video that follows from YouTube channel Learn Engineering, you can see in detail the structure and function of the battery that the electric cars of Tesla use.




Description from YouTube channel  Learn Engineering :

A portable power supply has become the lifeline of the modern technological world, especially the lithium-ion battery. Imagine a world where all cars are driven by induction motors and not internal combustion engines. Induction motors are far superior to IC engines in almost all engineering aspects, as well as being more robust and cheaper. Another huge disadvantage of IC engines is that they only produce usable torque in a narrow band of engine RPM. Considering all of these factors, induction motors are definitely the perfect choice for an automobile. However, the power supply for an induction motor is the real bottleneck in achieving a major induction motor revolution in the automobile industry. Let’s explore how Tesla, with the help of lithium-ion cells, solved this issue and why lithium-ion cells are going to become even better in the future.