A startup has developed a solid-state battery suitable for electric cars that can fully charge in minutes and lasts more than twice as long as current EV batteries.
After successfully demonstrating a coin-cell prototype with charge rates of three minutes and over 10,000 cycles in a lifetime, Harvard University spin-off Adden Energy recieved $5.15 million in funding to further advance the technology, with the aim of commercializing it in the near future.
Rapid development of clean energy storage technology is critical to combating the “plague” of climate change, according to the startup.
In order to facilitate this adoption, Adden Energy CEO William Fitzhugh hopes to appeal to the 37 per cent of Americans who do not have garages at home, and therefore no access to at-home overnight charging for electric vehicles.
“Complete electrification of the vehicle fleet is one of the most meaningful steps we can take to fight climate change,” said Fitzhugh.
“However, broad adoption of electric vehicles requires batteries that can meet a diverse set of consumer needs… EVs need to recharge at comparable times to internal combustion vehicles, essentially in the time you’d currently spend at the gas pump.”
Estimates suggest that electrification of the world’s vehicle fleet could alone cut global greenhouse gas emissions by 16 per cent, with this “new battery paradigm” seen as essential to achieving this goal.
“Electric vehicles cannot remain a luxury fashion, literally the ‘one percent’ of vehicles on the road, if we are to make progress toward a clean energy future, and the US won’t have a used-car market if EV batteries last only 3 to 5 years,” said Xin Li, an associate professor of materials science at Harvard and a scientific advisor to Adden Energy.
“The technology needs to be accessible to everyone… We don’t see any fundamental limit to scaling up our battery technology. That could be a game changer.”
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