The Thursday session of the Advanced Automotive Battery conference focused on applications and the market, specifically for hybrid electric and plug-in electric vehicles. Toyota, Honda, GM, Ford, and Porsche all participated in a session where each of them talked about the progress they are making and challenges they face developing and testing battery technologies for the electric vehicles of tomorrow.
On a personal note, it was interesting that the conference provided head sets for attendees to get live translations from Japanese to English or English to Japanese. I’m always impressed with how easily and quickly these translators work especially with all the technical jargon peppered in the talks.
Even though Toyota started developing NiMH and Li-ion batteries in the 1990s for automobiles they have not finalized on the right mix of technology for future automobilesbut it could be a solid or metal air configuration.
Honda presented something very similar presenting information about tests done on the batteries including vibration, shock, condensation, crush, thermal cycling, and thermal stress. Every car and battery manufacturer showed impressive amounts of testing done to prove the safety of the batteries. But the tests also showed that battery packs were achieving 3x the output and 2x the capacity from previous hybrid electric vehicles.
Ted Miller from Ford gave a presentation on how engineers can tell if they have safe batteries. He discussed the need for repeatable vehicle-level Li-ion based safety performance tests that draw upon the cell, module, and pack level information. He then provided a method that engineers could use to get them to have repeatable safety tests. It should include something that has a fault-tree analysis, test method, analysis and refinement, and finally, iteration. The fault tree should include thermal, electrical, chemical, and mechanical categories. The development of the tests for these categories came from a collaboration with MIT, U of Maryland, U. of Michigan, and some professional organizations. You can see that these auto manufacturers are serious about getting useful tests with valid results leading to safe batteries.
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