New battery technology designed to increase the range of electric vehicles has been showcased by Samsung SDI in the US.
The South Korean lithium-ion battery company lined up various capacities (37, 50, 60 and 94 Ah) of battery cells for EVs and plug-in hybrid EVs at the Detroit North American International Auto Show.
Samsung said its “high density” cells allow batteries to power EVs for up to 600 kilometres on a 20-minute charge. The company also displayed cells and modules based on the new 21700 standard cylindrical batteries used in Tesla’s Model 3 EVs. The 21700 technology can also be deployed in energy storage applications, Samsung said.
The battery maker also introduced a new battery material— “graphene balls”— said to be capable of increasing battery capacity by 45% and a five-fold acceleration of charging times.
The graphene balls, developed by the Samsung Advanced Institute and Technology, were the subject of an article published in the November 2017 edition of the science journal Nature Communications.
Also on display in Detroit were the firm’s “multi-functional module battery packs”, which Samsung said allow users to adjust the number of modules to vary the driving range of EVs.