Minimal degradation
Volkswagen is developing solid statebatteries and has achieved encouraging results in a test with them. There hardly seems to be any battery degradation.
There is still plenty of room for improvement in batteries for electric cars. For example, you can consider the material costs, but also the energy density and the degree of degradation. The latter could turn out to be much more positive than is currently the case with a new generation of EV batteries from the Volkswagen Group. Volkswagen’s battery division PowerCo has produced a very positive test result in the development of a new one solid state-battery.
A test was carried out in which such a battery was charged and discharged 1,000 times to see what effect this had on the capacity. It turned out to have deteriorated to 95 percent of its original capacity. A degradation of five percent per 1,000 charging cycles is a result that the Germans can be proud of. Volkswagen illustrates that charging and discharging 1,000 times is approximately equivalent to driving 500,000 km with an electric car with a WLTP driving range of 500 to 600 km. So in theory you could still use the battery after half a million kilometers ‘without noticeable loss of capacity’.
The Volkswagen Group states that it is now important to be able to put this battery technology into production on a larger scale. To this end, it collaborates with the American battery developer QuantumScape, which is also the cradle of this solid state battery. Quantumscape’s CEO also states that the goal is to bring this technology to market “as quickly as possible.” However, specific terms are not yet mentioned. In any case, Volkswagen is already preparing a new modular platform, possibly also with a view to the arrival of these new batteries. The basis, called SSP, will probably come into play for the first time next year.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl