US agency sponsoring the development of better, cheaper EV batteries

The US Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) recently awarded three industry teams a total of US$7 million to aid the development of computer-aided software design tools for producing the next generation of electric vehicle batteries. The three teams’ projects support the DOE’s Computer-Aided Engineering for Electric Drive Vehicle Batteries (CAEBAT) program, a project aimed at helping the automotive and battery industries design and develop electric vehicle batteries more quickly, thereby lowering unit cost.

Specific project goals for the selected teams – EC Power, Penn State University, Johnson Controls, Inc., and Ford; General Motors, ANSYS, and ESim; and CD-adapco, Battery Design LLC, A123 Systems, and Johnson Controls-Saft –include developing battery engineering tools to design cells and battery packs, shortening the battery prototyping and manufacturing processes, improving overall battery performance, safety, and battery life and reducing battery costs. Each team will independently develop and validate computer-aided engineering tools, with an emphasis on electrochemical, electrical, mechanical, and thermal issues. They also will integrate different chemistries, cell geometries, and battery pack configurations. The NREL anticipates that the resulting systems will become “competitive marketplace offerings in the near-term.”

The teams themselves will contribute 50 per cent towards the project costs over the next three years, bringing the overall project budget to $14 million. In addition to funding, NREL will provide the teams with technical support on battery electrochemical-thermal modelling and testing.