The Graphene Flagship's new Graphene Enabled High-Energy Batteries for Automotive Applications (GrEEnBat) Spearhead project will aim to improve battery technology for electric vehicles.
The output of the strategic three-year project will be an automotive battery module prototype that is composed of 60 to 90 battery electric vehicle (BEV) cells. The core of innovation will be the negative electrode of the cell, composed of a silicon-graphene composite developed during earlier Graphene Flagship research projects.
"We are building on extensive work on this topic during the first years of the Graphene Flagship Project and the previous-spearhead project on Batteries," explained Stephen Koller, CEO of Varta Micro Innovation and GrEEnBat leader at the Graphene Flagship. "The prospective activities are based on this work and the relating results. For the next three years, the same concept will be used and further optimized to achieve the targeted lifetime of 1000 cycles.
"The final module prototype shall offer a lifetime of 1000 cycles, whereby end of life is 80 per cent capacity retention, which refers to a total driving range of ~450.000 km. This is prospected to be competitive to SotA lithium-ion based modules in 2025. In addition, there are requirements in safety and costs."