California-based lithium-ion battery manufacturer Zenlabs Energy has been awarded a US$4.8 million contract by the US Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) to develop “low-cost, fast-charge battery technology” for electric vehicles (EVs).
The contract will fund a 30-month project— which started in March 2019— that aims to develop novel cell designs and production methods to improve the performance of lithium-ion batteries for automotive purposes.
“The low-cost/fast-charge technology development contract award with Zenlabs is part of USABC’s broad battery technology research and development programme,” said USCAR executive director Steve Zimmer.
Zenlabs said it has a decade of technology R&D that has led to its development of “proprietary silicon-based formulations that offer higher specific capacity, longer cycle life, and lower cost”. The company has also “solved the common problems with silicon based anodes such as poor cycling and swelling”.
The USABC is a subsidiary of the US Council for Automotive Research (USCAR) enabled by a cooperative agreement with the US Department of Energy.
Last year, the USABC announced funding for the second phase of a lithium recycling contract by the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
