NIO Power Europe plant to commence operation; support for battery swapping and R&D
30 July 2022
Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Hui Zhang, Vice President of NIO Europe Office, jointly announced that NIO Power Europe Plant in Pest megye, with investment from NIO, will commence operation in September.
With a footprint of around 10,000 square meters, NIO Power Europe Plant, as NIO’s first overseas plant, will serve as the manufacturing, service and R&D center for NIO’s power products in Europe, with its major business covering the manufacturing and after-sales service of battery swapping stations, training for power operations in Europe, and the R&D of power products.
Its launch will further enhance the deployment and service efficiency of NIO Power in Europe, bringing a better ownership experience for European users.
NIO’s first battery swap station in Norway.
The NIO House Oslo, Norway, battery swap station opened in October 2021. After entering the Norwegian market, NIO will expand into Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark in the second half of this year with its products and comprehensive services.
The operations of NIO Power Europe Plant will add further momentum to the construction of NIO Power Swap Stations in these countries, laying a solid foundation for local battery swapping and charging services.
https://www.arenaev.com/first_semisolidstate_batteries_are_coming_to_nio_in_september-news-533.php
As far as personal mobility is concerned, this looks like one of the final nails in H2's coffin.
Posted by: yoatmon | 30 July 2022 at 04:40 AM
I don't buy the hype of solid/semi-solid batteries.
Batteries are lacking in many fronts (price, lifespan, temperature sensibility, fast charging, scalability...).
Therefore, each chemistry is a proposition with unique characteristics. I have not seen a single full solid-state specification covering all important characteristics.
I am specially suspicious on the price area; ie. Quantumscape technology does not look cheap.
Posted by: peskanov | 30 July 2022 at 06:55 AM
You are correct about price for solid state batteries with a lithium anode. However, Quantumscape is “anode free” deriving the lithium from the catholyte/cathode.
This article discusses how “the fabrication of thin Li metal with high reactivity and strong adhesion property significantly raises the processing complexity and cost (> US$1000 kg−1).” It describes a anode-free, semi-solid lithium sulfide battery with a low cost cathode and high lithium content.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32031-7
While still complex, a sodium metal anode may significantly reduce costs and with a sulfur cathode potentially have a long life.
Posted by: Gryf | 30 July 2022 at 09:29 AM
Anode free has possibilities but you still have dendrites
Posted by: SJC | 30 July 2022 at 10:26 AM
Read the article.
“ MXene-doped fluorinated polymer, inhibits polysulfide shuttling, hinders Li dendrite formation and further secures cell safety. ”
Also, Quantumscape separator material is a ceramic capable of meeting the key requirements of high conductivity, stability to lithium metal, resistance to dendrite formation, and low interfacial impedance.
https://www.quantumscape.com/technology/
Posted by: Gryf | 30 July 2022 at 12:11 PM
Gryf,
in the specific case of Quantumscape, it's the separator that rings to me as expensive. The info I have found speaks of LLZO, a crystal made of lithium lanthanum zirconium oxide.
We have to keep in mind we are talking EV batteries, not laptop ones; can they produce this kind of component by the ton? Some of these exotic materials are ok in small quantities production, but we in the case of automotive li-ion we are in the $100/kwh zone.
I did check the article you linked; quite nice, but this cell seems to lack on lifespan. If I read correctly, after 250 cycles 10%-20% capacity is lost.
Posted by: peskanov | 30 July 2022 at 03:46 PM
@Peskanov
The Quantumscape separator materials should not be expensive (process is another question). The LLZO separator is 10 micrometers thick and the materials are not that rare. NiMH Hybrid batteries contain 10-15 kg of Lanthanum (so just recycle those batteries) and Zirconium is twice as abundant as Copper or Zinc and over ten times more abundant than lead.
It is difficult to determine cycle life from battery research data. If you look in the Supplemental Data (Supplementary Figure 6.) it has pretty stable cycle life. Zhiyu Wang, one of the article authors works for Valiant in Yantai, China, a battery company, so we could see this being developed.
Both the Lithium Sulfide battery and Quantumscape will not be in production before 2025 anyway. However, I do like Our Next Energy (ONE) battery strategy that uses an Anode free battery as a range extender to an LFP battery in their Gemini battery. The ONE battery does not need many cycles since the LFP battery does 95% of the work.
Posted by: Gryf | 30 July 2022 at 05:07 PM
@Gryf,
NiMH batteries for hybrid are really expensive compare with Li-ion. I am not saying it's Lanthanum's fault, but it's a thing to keep in mind (I know you were referring as NiMH as a source for lanthanum in recycling; but I want to point that a technology using Lanthanum could be expensive when scaling)
Lanthanum seems pretty cheap just looking at Alibaba exporters, but Zirconium seems really expensive.
This is difficult to estimate as one of the problems with batteries is material purity. Lithium minerals are pretty cheap, but high purity lithium is crazy expensive, as production can't keep with demand.
Quantumscape could probably hit that problem soon with the separator, as zirconium is expensive even in raw form, let alone highly purified.
At 10 microns, the total volume dedicated to the separator will probably about 10%, as the full assembly of layers in a li-ion battery is usually 100 microns.
I don't know...I guess my position is wait and see. In any case I see solid state batteries as a possible improvement more than a revolution.
Posted by: peskanov | 31 July 2022 at 01:28 AM
"..dendrite formation can be inhibited by using two-dimensional materials with relatively high specific surface area and electrolyte with a high metal-ion transfer number."
Posted by: SJC | 31 July 2022 at 11:14 AM
@SJC
Good quote. The Lithium Sulfite battery uses two-dimensional Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets originally developed at Drexel University are low cost and made from abundant materials.
https://drexel.edu/engineering/research-design/centers-institutes-labs/drexel-nanomaterials-institute/research/mxenes/
Posted by: Gryf | 31 July 2022 at 02:34 PM