It is true that electric cars have been gaining in capacity to cover kilometers on a single charge and it is already common to find models that exceed 400 km, but in any case it is important to know some discoveries that may be interesting for this purpose. It is precisely what we have with Niobium , a component that will improve the useful life and capacity of your batteries.
Niobium will be of great help for your car
The useful life of the batteries of electrified cars depends on many factors , although its duration is usually around eight years or between 150,000 and 200,000 km. Some brands such as Volkswagen commit that after eight years or 160,000 km, 80% of the battery capacity of their electric cars will continue to be available, and others such as Volvo estimate a useful life of 200,000 km.
However, despite the fact that it is inevitable that the battery ends up losing its capacity, there are some habits that favor that this moment lasts over time. But everything could be much more simplified thanks to Niobium, a component that can be of great help for this fact… and that will allow us not to depend so much on lithium.
How did we get to this? Very easy: electric car batteries lose part of their energy capacity before we do the first recharge. As Oak Ridge National Laboratory explains, the reasons to explain this are found in the degradation suffered by its chemistry and in the impurities that are created in the first charge and discharge cycle. And there, Niobium can be key .
What do we have
The fear of a deep battery crisis that will take over from microchips and semiconductors is well founded, so the industry begins to look for an alternative philosophy, such as Niobium.
We see it with Echion Technologies, a British company that is the one that has managed to hit the mark. We are talking about a startup founded by researchers from the University of Cambridge that seems to have found a solution for waiting times, but also to improve the useful life itself.
This element present in the niobite mineral is, according to the company, an optimal material to use as an electric car battery anode . In fact, in recent years Echion Technologies has examined close to 1,000 candidate materials for niobium-based anodes and has selected “a very narrow proportion.” Optimizing charge rate and energy density are of particular importance, as faster-charging batteries often have lower energy density.
This material will shake up the electric car industry
This chemical element has been on the radar as a potential material for lithium ion battery anodes , the material in a lithium ion battery that receives lithium ions, since the 1980s. And different voices point out that it is going to turn the world of electric vehicles upside down.
The speed at which lithium ions and electrons move is responsible for a battery being able to offer adequate power for each need and the fastest possible recharge.
Among the data that stands out is the capacity retention capacity, although without indicating the number of cycles. According to Echion, “tests with the first prototypes indicate that they are capable of retaining 70% of their capacity even at temperatures of -30°C and are also resistant to high temperatures , which can be especially useful in regions such as the Middle East”.