Panasonic Corp. has spent the previous six months creating a battery cell with larger power density and higher fast-charging efficiency.

However taking an electrical car battery to a brand new degree requires greater than a tweak, stated Celina Mikolajczak, vice chairman of battery expertise at Panasonic Vitality North America. The present innovation includes adjustments in design, supplies and manufacturing processes.

“Folks wish to envision a cell as sort of a commodity product,” Mikolajczak stated. However a lithium ion cell is just not a commodity product, she informed Automotive Information.

“Each design has its personal challenges. It has its personal strengths. It has its personal demerits. I make a cell that is optimized for one buyer, a special buyer needs a special optimization,” she stated.

The product in query, referred to as Panasonic’s 2170 cell, provides energy to the Tesla Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y batteries which are made on the Gigafactory in Reno, Nev., by which Panasonic and Tesla are companions.

Advancing the cell required a shift in design, which Mikolajczak stated is tougher to fabricate.

“Each time you do one thing new on the chemistry facet, there’s all the time implications on the processing facet,” she stated.

“It has been pushing plenty of our supplies to their bodily limits, and that turns into evident once you attempt to do the manufacturing on the scale that we manufacture at, and on the velocity that we manufacture at,” she added.

“One of many issues that made Tesla distinctive in comparison with the opposite automakers is their very fast design cycle and modifications.”
Tesla’s fast-paced improvement cycles require hand-in-hand adjustments by Panasonic.

Panasonic is making an attempt to introduce new supplies which are inexpensive, together with cobalt. Cobalt mining can be going through rising social disfavor, with critics focusing on mines within the Democratic Republic of the Congo as unsafe.

“We have to innovate loads with our supplies, provide chain and minerals extraction,” Mikolajczak stated. “We have solely scratched the floor of what’s acceptable for minerals extraction and what will be finished in a socially and environmentally acceptable manner.”

Exchanging cobalt for nickel makes a lithium ion battery cell’s crystalline construction extra delicate to moisture and contaminants. That may require the manufacturing to maneuver into dry-room manufacturing environments.

Panasonic can be contemplating advances in separators, for security and reliability, and in nonactive supplies akin to copper foils, aluminum foils and cell cans.

“All of those are very engineered supplies that need to maintain high-speed manufacturing processes,” the chief stated. “Then they need to be dependable once more in a automotive for eight years or longer.”

Mikolajczak stated battery packs, battery manufacturing processes, battery fast-charging capabilities and the supplies provide chain all have room for enchancment throughout the trade.

Panasonic needs to make enhancements in cell manufacturing that can yield higher cell price, high quality and security.

“For our factories, we are able to proceed to push the bounds of automation,” she stated. “It is plenty of machine design, plenty of massive information evaluation utilizing AIs to do high quality checks.

“It isn’t battery chemistry, however it’s actually superior manufacturing methods.”