Tesla’s battery research partner has released a new paper on a battery cell that could last over 1 million miles, which they say is going to be particularly useful in ‘robot taxis’ — something that Tesla wants to bring to market.
Earlier this year, Elon Musk said that they built Model 3 to last as long as a commercial truck, a million miles, and the battery modules should last between 300,000 miles and 500,000 miles.
However, the CEO claims that Tesla has a new battery coming up next year that will last a million miles.
Over the last three years, the University of Dalhousie researchers have been testing a new kind of lithium-ion battery that they say can be reliably recharged as many as 6,000 times.
The new battery tested is a Li-Ion battery cell with a next-generation “single crystal” NMC cathode and a new advanced electrolyte.
They have tested the battery cells under different conditions and cycles. Even at the extreme temperature of 40’C, these cells were lasting 4,000 cycles.
With an active cooling system, like in Tesla’s battery pack, it was pushing the battery cells to over 6,000 cycles, which would easily mean over 1 million miles in a good battery pack. Controlling the charge to less than 100% state-of-charge also helps push the longevity.
Clearly EVs destined for vehicle-to-grid applications, robo taxis, or long-haul trucking would favor a lithium-ion chemistry that could deliver many more charge-discharge cycles.
Reference- Futurism, Clean Technica, Electrek
