Bloomberg is reporting today that Panasonic has decided to buy rival Japanese consumer electronics company Sanyo. While this in an of itself is not particularly important in this space, it does pose some questions in terms of hybrid and electric vehicles. Both companies make a huge array of products, including batteries. Units of the two manufacturers are among the largest producers of batteries for hybrid vehicles. Panasonic, through a joint venture with Toyota, supplies all that company's batteries as well as batteries to General Motors and Chrysler. Sanyo supplies Ford, Honda and has agreements to supply batteries to the Volkswagen group. With so many other companies like Continental, Bosch and Samsung getting into the automotive battery market, this combination probably won't have much impact on supplies or prices, but we'll be watching.

[Source: Bloomberg]

The world's number one rechargeable battery maker is seeking out new automotive clients in an attempt to stay on top of the heap. With its competitor, Matsushita (Panasonic), snapping at its heels with plans to triple output, Sanyo is on the hunt for new contracts from auto manufacturers. Sanyo's nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries are already in the Ford Escape hybrid but it is lithium ion where the company will no doubt want to focus its efforts, especially given that companies like Audi seem keen on the newer tech. They are also currently investing billions in that effort.

Using something of a shotgun approach, Sanyo says it's in talks with 5 or 6 different companies on three different continents.They had already been cooperating with Volkswagen on lithium ion batteries for hybrids coming to market in 2010. Volkswagen is also presumed to use that company's batteries for its planned all-electric vehicles as well. In a boast to Reuters, Sanyo Electric Senior Vice President Masato Ito said of their nearest competitor, "By the time Matsushita has raised its capacity to 75 million, ours will be well over 100 million." We can only hope that all this increased investment and battery braggadocio will result in lower prices.

[Source: Guardian]

Even before its first production vehicle ships with a lithium ion battery, Toyota is already making plans for the next wave of energy storage technology. We expect to see Toyota and Lexus products with lithium ion packs sometime around 2010, and Toyota is said to believe that the technology will last about twenty years. Therefore, a replacement will be needed around 2030. For this reason, Toyota has set up a new team of fifty people this month to begin working on the next-next generation of electric power, which could use chemical batteries, capacitors or some combination of the two.

Whatever the next technology for energy storage turns out to be, Toyota doesn't want to be caught off guard. Considering that battery supply is already one limiting factor when it comes to how many hybrid vehicles the Japanese giant can produce, we are hardly shocked that Toyota has plans to stay on the cutting edge in battery technology.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

Nissan isn't the only Japanese auto manufacturer with big plans for batteries. Toyota will open two new battery plants in Japan and expand a third for the production of nickel metal hydride and lithium ion batteries. All of Toyota's current hybrid vehicles use the older nickel-based battery chemistry. The lithium ion batteries produced at the new plant will likely be scheduled for next-gen hybrids like the upcoming Lexus version of the third-generation Prius sedan. The total investment from Toyota will be ¥20 billion, or $192.3 million. These new plants are expected to support Toyota's ambitious goal to sell a million hybrid vehicles per year within the next decade. Currently, the Japanese giant is the global leader in hybrid sales, selling 429,000 of the gasoline/electric vehicles in 2007. The three plants will have the capacity to produce a million packs by the year 2011, which lines up quite nicely with Toyota's plans. Thanks to Joseph for the tip.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

In an interesting twist to the saga that is the development of the Phoenix Motorcars electric SUT & SUV program comes news that they are now partnering with a Canadian battery maker. In a press release from that company, Electrovaya says that they are now negotiating an arrangement with Phoenix and have already begun the work of integrating their proprietary Lithium Ion SuperPolymer® battery along with its intelligent battery management system ("iBMS").

Phoenix Motorcars President and CEO, Daniel J. Elliot is quoted by the release as saying, "We are pleased to have Electrovaya join forces with us, and we are excited to be working with their team and their advanced technologies. Electrovaya's innovative Lithium Ion SuperPolymer® battery technology stands apart from its peers as a platform, chemistry agnostic technology. Electrovaya's systems expertise and design experience provide what we need in terms of battery performance." Hmm. That strikes us as possibly being in conflict with a statement made by the CEO a couple months ago in a different press release which can still be found on the Phoenix Motorcars website. And we quote, "We wholeheartedly support Altairnano's technology and believe they provide the greatest product available on the market today." Altairnano being the company that has been trumpeted as the supplier of their battery of choice for some time now, we wonder if a similar fate has befallen them as has their original motor supplier, UQM. Or perhaps Phoenix plans on utilizing the power packs from both companies. We shall try to get the straight dope and let your enquiring minds know but in the mean time go ahead and read the available details in the press release after the break.

In an attempt to keep our readers up to date on the very latest developments in technology as it pertains to transportation and the lessening of our carbon footprints, we often burn the midnight oil and labor to understand technical papers until our brains cramp and ears bleed. OK, maybe I'm the only one with the ear thing but what I'm trying to get across is that we are not slackers (Not that there is anything wrong with that.) And it is in that spirit of brain-crampedness (and sore ears) we present you now with some of the latest news of breakthroughs
in the batteries that may one day power your hybrid or electric car.

We all know that our modern batteries do their thing (charge and discharge) by sending lithium ions back and forth between the anode (where the current comes in) and cathode (where the current goes out). This action is what eventually degrades your electrodes (anodes and cathodes). By improving the materials that bear this beating, scientists aim to increase the amount of energy batteries hold as well as the number of times you can recharge them. Hear about a couple of these efforts after the break.

There is much more to building complete battery packs for electric cars and hybrids than most people think about. Sure, cells are available - they are powering the laptop that this story is being written on. Just ask Tesla about taking a few thousand of those batteries and turning them into a unit capable of powering an electric car. To help turn those loose cells into usable battery packs, power-train engineering consultant Ricardo has created a new Battery Systems Development Center in Detroit. This group of 32 people will work to create turn-key battery packs and their related necessary equipment to be offered for use in battery-powered vehicles. This development work falls under Ricardo's Total Vehicle Fuel Economy work that we've reported on in the past. Of course, battery cost is another hurdle to overcome, but Ricardo's been working on that one too.

[Source: Ricardo]

On this site Panasonic has mostly received attention for their relationship with Toyota as a supplier of batteries. In particular, we've discussed their difficulties with lithium ion batteries. While the company may be struggling to create automotive-class lithium ion batteries, they are moving forward with batteries for smaller vehicles.

Panasonic has been producing electric bicycles for several years including several folding models. Their latest entry is the Titanium Flat Road EB. This racing bike is equipped with a lithium ion battery that has enough capacity to move the bike about six miles. The bike is equipped with Panasonic's Smart Lithium-Ion Integrated Management System (SLIM) that can provide information to the rider about the battery state of charge and range. So far their is no information on price or availability.

[Source: Akhibara News]

Johnson Controls, Inc (JCI) isn't necessarily the first name that comes to mind when someone thinks of batteries, but odds are that the lead-acid battery under the hood of your ride comes from the company's Power Solutions group. JCI's I3 ("Ingenuity, Integration, and Interface") concept vehicle on display at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show displays the group's next step forward in battery technology.

The battery displayed in the I3 concept is constructed of cylindrical lithium-ion cells that carry the Saft brand, along with integrated charge management and state-of-health/state-of-charge measurement. The complete pack weighs approximately 90 kg, occupies 70 L of space, and has a usable capacity of approximately 3kWh to yield an electric-only range of about 10 miles. Air cooling is used, as JCI currently does not believe that liquid cooling makes sense for PHEV packs due to its greater complexity.

JCI is also working on a battery that will provide a range of 40 miles; however, this particular pack presents an issue with packaging volume as it's approximately four times the size as the pack on display. This is in direct contradiction with the overall smaller size of a longer-range plug-in hybrid vehicle; we assume that such a pack would also be rather costly, although that topic didn't get any attention.

Expect to see the first use of this lithium battery in Mercedes' upcoming S-class mild hybrid, albeit in a much smaller form.

When we're talking about the word "hybrid" in automotive circles, it doesn't always mean a gasoline engine with a powerful battery pack tied on. For Maxwell Technologies and Tianjin Lishen Battery, hybrid describes a new sort of energy storage product that combines ultracapacitors with lithium-ion batteries. The two companies recently announced they would partner up to produce this hybrid power source, and samples should be available early next year, possibly in EVs. The Maxwell press release doesn't give any details and simply says, that "The companies have identified a number of initial target applications for the new products, ranging from quick-charge cordless tools to electric vehicles."

David Schramm, Maxwell's president and chief executive officer, said this hybrid tech "will give end-users the best of both worlds in terms of the long cycle life, rapid charge/discharge characteristics and low temperature performance of ultracapacitors and the large energy storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries." Let's hope so.

[Source: Maxwell via The Energy Blog]

There is more evidence that Toyota isn't ready to give up on NiMH batteries just yet. Panasonic EV Energy, the joint venture of Toyota and Matsushita to produce batteries for hybrid vehicles is putting up a new plant next their existing facility Shizuoka Prefecture to crank up capacity by fifty percent.

The extra production capacity will allow Panasonic EV Energy to provide battery packs for up to 750,000 hybrid vehicles per year. Eventually the joint venture company will also supply lithium packs to Toyota, but first Panasonic will have to learn how to make robust lithium packs.

[Source: GreenCarCongress]

One of the many topics we discussed during the dinner last week with Gary Smyth and Nick Zielinski was end-of-life for batteries. As we all know batteries don't last forever and we can't dump them in landfills. Just because a battery doesn't have enough capacity to be useful for a car, it doesn't mean they have no value.

Although power sources like wind, solar and tidal are infinitely renewable and clean, their main drawback is lack of continuity. Unlike a gas or coal fired power station that goes as long as you feed it, the sun obviously doesn't shine twenty four hours a day on one spot. The same goes for wind and, to a lesser degree, tidal power. One possible solution is to create huge banks of batteries to store electrical energy when the sun shines or the wind blows and then send it out at night or when the air is calm.

That's were used hybrid and electric car batteries come in. PG&E in California is experimenting with using used batteries to store and release electricity for use during peak output times and when energy from green sources is unavailable. If electrical utility companies start to buy up used but still useful batteries that could take out some of the sting of replacement costs and reduce pressure on car makers to create electric vehicles with batteries that last the life of the car. If the battery only has to have a life in the vehicle of 50,000 rather than 100,000 miles and the replacement cost is reduced by being able to trade in the old battery, the segment could potentially grow much faster.

[Source: Green Wombat via Hugg]

In AutoblogGreen Podcast #4, ABG talked to Dr. Alan Gotcher of Altairnano Technologies about the battery technology that makes the Phoenix SUT go. You can now read the interview transcript below.

AutoblogGreen: This is Sam Abuelsamid from AutoblogGreen and I'm talking today with Dr. Alan Gotcher who is the CEO of Altair Nanotechnologies. Why don't we start off with just a little bit of background on the company, where you're coming from and what you're working on.

Alan Gotcher: You bet. Altair Nanotechnology is a young company that is publicly traded on the NASDAQ. Our ticker symbol is ALTI. We have just over 90 employees. We're based in Reno, Nevada and we have an operation in Anderson, Indiana that does rapid, product design and rapid prototyping. The company has been developing products for some unmet needs using nano-structured ceramic materials that are providing some performance that really hasn't been achieved before with these materials, primarily because of the high surface area and small particle size that's inherent in nanotechnology. Some people have appreciated the recent advances we've made in battery technology, where we have developed a new class of electrode materials that are used in lithium ion batteries. And it's analogous to what was done with the nickel-based batteries 20 or so years ago when metal hydride electrode materials replaced cadmium in nickel cadmium batteries to produce what's called nickel metal hydride batteries. And we're doing something similar with our nano structure ceramic materials where we produce a lithium titanate material that's used to replace graphite that's conventionally used in conventional lithium ion batteries and as a result we have a new class of batteries that we call nanotitanate to reflect the new electrode material. Now, these batteries have almost unbelievable performance in that they can be recharged very rapidly. Depending upon the power supply, we can recharge these batteries in less than a minute, in large format that would power, say, a full sized all electric vehicle that carries five adults. Those battery packs can be recharged in less than ten minutes. The vehicles are not your conventional, electric vehicles. These are not souped-up golf carts. These vehicles can break loose the tires from a standing start, accelerate to speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour, even though that's higher than the speed limits of American roads. The batteries have tremendous life, estimated to be in the range of 12 to 15 years, or about the design life of the vehicle. And importantly, these batteries can operate at minus 50 Centigrade to plus 75 Centigrade, or 165 Fahrenheit. It's unusual battery technology and the technology's been validated by third parties.

You can find out more about how Altairnano's battery charges so fast, lives so long and their relationship with Phoenix and Zap after the jump.

Several articles floating around the internets today including this one are referencing an Automotive News article published this morning on building the battery supply chain for the General Motors E-Flex program. Most of those stories are assuming from the wording of the AN article that GM has issued battery development contracts for the Volt program. A General Motors spokesman confirmed this afternoon that no new contracts have yet been issued for the E-Flex program. Earlier this year General Motors gave contracts to Cobasys/A123 and Johnson Controls/Saft to develop batteries for the Saturn Vue PHEV but the E-Flex deals should be coming soon.

[Source: General Motors]

In a letter sent out to their first batch of 380+ customers a few days ago Tesla Motors has some bad news. They will be coming up a little short on their original 250 mile range target. One surefire thing about developing a new vehicle is that the car you end up with almost never be exactly like the one you initially designed. During the course of testing almost every part usually ends up getting some degree of redesign. Things rarely go exactly as planned. So Tesla is real car company as well.

All that testing that Martin Eberhard talked about in our interview a few weeks back has had the desired effect of shaking out problems before they get into customer hands. The downside is that addressing those problems has added some weight to the roadster, to the tune of several hundred pounds in this case. Unfortunately since batteries make up such a large proportion of the mass of an electric car, this extra weight has negatively impacted the range. In addition, in order to help ensure the durability of the battery pack over the life of the car, they went with a cell formulation with a little less capacity but better long-term endurance.

The bottom line is that once they got the Roadster onto an EPA compliant dynamometer to run the official city cycle, the numbers came up shy. Tesla isn't quoting final figures yet until they finish testing the final validation prototypes, but they still expect them to come in at greater than 200 miles. If they manage that it would still put them well ahead of any previous production electric vehicle. The ABG Garage door is always open if Tesla needs someone to accumulate some real world test miles. It's nice to see a company be so open about their development process and all the details from Tesla are after the jump.

[Source: Tesla Motors]