‘Leapfrog' or letdown in battery tech?

In recent months, Nikola Corp. and Tesla have announced major leaps in battery technology that, if proven, could lead to big improvements in EV range. But in an industry where exaggerated claims are commonplace, not everyone is convinced these latest breakthroughs will live up to their promise.

In April, CEO Elon Musk teased a lithium ion battery that would have the capacity to power Tesla's electric vehicles for more than 1 million miles. This would allow a vehicle to weather 4,000 charge cycles as compared with the battery modules in the Tesla Model 3, for instance, which Musk said can weather 1,500 charge cycles, or 300,000 to 500,000 miles.
Musk backed his claim by filing a patent application for the 1-million-mile battery technology almost simultaneously with the release of a paper from a team of researchers at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia in September. The team concluded that cells such as the one Musk announced "should be able to power an electric vehicle for over 1.6 million kilometers" or 1 million miles.

Based on that research, these batteries would last two to three times longer than the existing Tesla battery cells. The researchers stated the unique chemistry of the battery could be ideal for robotaxis, long-haul electric trucks and vehicle-to-grid applications.

On Nov. 19, Nikola, a Tesla competitor that is building fuel-cell-powered semitrucks, said it planned to unveil "game-changing" battery cell technology but not show it until its Nikola World 2020 conference, expected to take place next fall. Nikola says it plans to share the intellectual property with other automakers "due to the impact this technology will have on society and emissions."

The Phoenix startup asserts that the technology will be more environmentally friendly than lithium ion, could double the range of passenger EVs to 600 miles "with little or no increase to battery size and weight" and give Nikola's semis a range of 800 miles fully loaded. It says the battery's positive electrode, or cathode, will carry four times the energy density of lithium ion.

Some say such claims are overly ambitious and vague. Sam Jaffe, managing director of Cairn ERA, an energy storage research and consulting firm, said he is largely skeptical of the Nikola announcement due to the company's refusal to show performance data and reveal what university lab it is working with.

"Tesla's announcement of a million-mile battery, I wouldn't say is backed up, but they do have a published paper … where they explain exactly what they're talking about and why they made that claim and what the actual performance data of this particular battery recipe that they came up with that has essentially 20,000 cycles to it.

"Overpromising on breakthrough batteries is a common theme throughout the industry for the last couple of decades. It's happened many times, and it's a problem for the industry because people read these articles that just repeat the claims and say, problem solved. And it's not. Batteries are hard," Jaffe added. "Rarely has there been a leapfrog moment where a new chemistry that was never used before comes in and supplants the incumbent and changes the world. It doesn't work that way."

In an interview with Automotive News, Nikola CEO Trevor Milton said he welcomes the skepticism.

"I enjoy it. Because every time I prove them wrong, it drives them absolutely insane. And they have to go back and admit that they were wrong," said Milton. "For me, that's the funnest part of it. When we announced the Nikola truck, a lot of the critics came out and called us vaporware."

Milton says he had been searching for years for a way to make a major improvement in battery technology, and about a year ago, he encountered "some very bright professors" that were working on just that.

"It's a new type of battery. I can't get into too much detail on it, but it does have aspects of lithium in it. It just gets rid of a majority of all the cobalt, magnesium and nickel and aluminum."

Nikola says the cells have been put through 2,000 cycles in the lab, with "acceptable" end-of-life performance. Milton says the company isn't testing them on the road.

"You can simulate every vehicle condition inside of a lab, and you do that for safety. You don't want something, you know, to go wrong and end up killing someone."