As Europe moves to a BEV era over the next decade, more advanced batteries are needed to drive vehicles further, while at the same time making them more affordable. According to the European Alternative Fuels Observatory, the average BEV retail price in 2023 in Europe reached a record high of €46,000. Previously, it was hoped that the localisation of battery cell production would help lower BEV manufacturing costs. However, after a series of disappointing news items from European battery makers (such as Northvolt), battery costs continue to be dominated mainly by Chinese suppliers, at least in the short- and medium-term future.
Europe’s carmakers are left with limited options with which to tackle this problem, one of them being a greater focus on battery chemistries. In recent years, there have been many advances in battery cathode chemistries, but each has its own benefits and drawbacks. This has led to a discussion around combining existing or newly developed cells of differing chemistries into one battery pack to give vehicles an overall performance boost while potentially lowering the cost.
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One example of this is sodium-ion battery (SIB) technology, which demonstrates excellent low-temperature electrochemical characteristics. According to a CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited) press release, its first-generation SIB can discharge normally at -40 °C and has a capacity retention rate of more than 90% at -20 °C. Though SIB energy density is lower than established chemistries, CATL proposes that it can be used with other conventional lithium-ion cells to increase a battery pack’s operating temperature window. This would be a useful enhancement to batteries used in northern Europe since the period when ambient temperature is below 0°C, leading to poor battery performance, can be considerable. From a cost perspective, sodium is a more abundant element than lithium. This makes sodium less likely to be vulnerable to resource constraints and price volatility. As a result, part-SIB battery packs may potentially incur lower production costs than those using only conventional lithium technologies.
Nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cells are usually used in BEVs to provide greater range than alternative chemistries. However, the cost of NMC is higher than other conventional chemistries and cathode metals can account for up to 60% of overall battery cost. To control costs, NMC can be used alongside cheaper cell types, such as SIB and LFP (lithium ferrophosphate). In fact, some Chinese car manufacturers have already started fitting mixed chemistry battery packs to their cars. Take Chery’s premium model – Luxeed R7 – for instance. It is equipped with a battery pack containing both NMC and LFP cells, an innovative way to balance the vehicle’s cost and performance. Since Chery sources the cells for this model from CATL, it can inherit the innovative technology from the battery giant.
Some state-of-the-art batteries have very high energy densities. However, most of them cannot be used in real-life applications due to inherent fundamental flaws. The ‘anode-free’ (AF) battery is one of these. Its major problem is that dendrites will form on the anode-side current collector over many charge and discharge cycles. They will cross through the electrolyte and separator, which will eventually cause a short circuit.
American startup, Our Next Energy, has proposed a method of making anode-free cells usable. Their solution combines both LFP and AF (with nickel-manganese cathode) cells into a single pack. In most cases, the car will be powered by LFP only. However, when the LFP battery charge falls to a certain point, the AF cells will charge the LFP part at a slower rate to prevent the formation of dendrites. Our Next Energy has tested its 185 kWh battery pack in BMW’s iX model, providing an impressive range of over 600 miles in the European WLTP test.
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By GlobalData
In conclusion, a hybrid battery pack, in theory, could be suitable for a wide range of cars depending on their market position. Examples include a mix of SIB for entry-level and AF cells for long-range premium brands. However, according to GlobalData, Nio and Luxeed are currently the only brands that are using hybrid battery packs, and their sales performance in Europe so far is not encouraging.
That leads GlobalData to question why more carmakers aren’t working on this technology. Firstly, SIB and AF technologies are relatively new developments in the battery sector. OEMs may be hesitant to adopt these technologies because of their unproven reliability and safety, not to mention the unforeseen events that could occur when they are mixed with other cell types. Secondly, mass production facilities of new cell types are not necessarily available yet. They cannot give OEMs enough confidence in a stable supply. In addition, although the muti-chemistry pack has an advantage in cost and energy density, its drawbacks are obvious; adding more cell types will require a more complicated and sophisticated battery management system, thermal management system and overall pack design. This will no doubt increase the difficulty of developing a new product and could eventually translate into higher consumer costs.
Chun Fung Lee, Analyst, Powertrain Forecasts, GlobalData
This article was first published on GlobalData’s dedicated research platform, the Automotive Intelligence Center.
