companies and countries wage “war” over batteries

The battery is the most important and also the most sensitive and costly component of an electric car. It represents around 40% of the value of a compact model. However, after ten years, the battery loses, on average, around half of its storage capacity, that is, it will travel only half the mileage it did when it left the factory on one charge.

Battery recycling, recovery or disposal do not have clear solutions yet. And the consumer may be insecure due to the high cost of changing the battery.

This issue has led companies, including car manufacturers, to look for more efficient prototypes, and to test other materials, such as sodium. This is a promising market, which attracts the attention of countries such as the USA and Germany.

“The battery is by far the most important component of an electric vehicle. Mastering the cost and technology of the battery is the most important point for those who do this”, assesses Cassio Pagliarini, professor of the postgraduate course in Automotive Sciences at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV).

He refers to the global dispute to develop more efficient batteries that allow improving profit margins for the main item of electric cars.

This is a subject that is of great interest to the Chinese BYD, today the world’s largest manufacturer of electric cars. In addition to producing cars, it also manufactures batteries. It’s an unusual and potent combination: “It doesn’t happen with any other. It is expected that it will sell to other manufacturers as well”, says Pagliarini.

According to Alexandre Baldy, BYD’s special advisor in Brazil, the company has lithium and sodium battery plants: “BYD has all types of batteries being produced in China today. Less than 30 days ago, the world’s largest sodium battery plant opened in the country,” Baldy told People’s Gazette. The company intends to start assembling cars in Brazil later this year.

Also in the battery race are Chinese CATL, South Korean Samsung and Japanese Panasonic. Of the others competing for a share of this market, the majority are in China, but the potential market for batteries has been attracting the attention of other countries, such as the USA and Germany, which are increasing investments in this area.

Europe’s largest battery manufacturer, Northvolt, was the target of a dispute between these two countries to build a battery factory. The German government won by proposing an investment of 902 million euros. The company will also expand the production of batteries for electric cars in Sweden, its country of origin, and also in Canada.

New batteries: lithium, solid state and sodium

Batteries are made from various raw materials depending on the purpose such as charge, durability, speed, price. Today, the most used are lithium batteries because they have a higher density, that is, a large energy storage capacity, which means they travel a greater mileage with each charge.

Pagliarini explains that there are several subgroups of the lithium battery (such as lithium and cobalt or lithium and manganese). And in this universe a revolution is taking place: solid electrolyte batteries, seen as a great bet for the future. “It’s a type of efficiency improvement because it reduces size and weight,” says the professor.

Compared to conventional batteries, which use liquids or gels, solid-state batteries are more stable and tend to last longer, in addition to charging faster.

Another material under development, including prototypes, is cars powered by sodium batteries. In addition to being found in abundance in nature, the raw material is considered better than lithium – which is rarer, more polluting and difficult to recycle, according to Pagliarini.

In this regard, however, Brazil is still at the bottom. A lot of nickel batteries are used around here, and the new ones that are arriving are lithium-based.

“A sodium battery is easier to mine, less polluting and recycling is simpler. However, it is heavy. The challenge is to make the sodium battery lighter, more compact, cheaper and more environmentally friendly”, explains the professor.