Materials

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A case of plastic over aluminium

Containing thermal runaway, protecting EV occupants from fire and saving weight are all drivers for the application of new materials to batteries, and the battery case is a prime target for replacing aluminium alloy with plastics (writes Peter Donaldson). Multi-industry plastics specialist SABIC has recently re-engineered existing EV battery cases in two proof-of-concept exercises that […]

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Motor laminations

Peter Donaldson reports on how lamination technology has evolved in recent times to meet changing demands from the EV industry Whether or not governments eventually ban the manufacture of

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New chapter in the story of cork

Finding a material with several applications in state-of-the-art EV powertrains that literally grows on trees might seem unlikely, but that is exactly what Portuguese company Amorim Cork Composites is offering with cork (writes Peter Donaldson). The raw material is the bark of the cork oak tree (Quercus suber), which in addition to its best-known application […]

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Motor wire is ‘green’

Tau has started shipping prototype environmentally friendly winding wire to the automotive industry. The wire combines minimised partial discharge, high fill factors and improved temperature resistance for high-voltage and frequency optimisation for electric motors.

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Mercedes-Benz announces long-range EV

Mercedes-Benz has unveiled its Vision EQXX concept EV, which has a range of more than 1000 km on a single battery charge, equating to a consumption of less than 10 kWh of energy per 100 km.

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Ricardo shows Steel E-Motive Level 5 concept EVs

Keen to show off what the latest generation of advanced high-strength steels can do, WorldAutoSteel, the automotive arm of the World Steel Association, has chosen Ricardo to design an EV family that could be offered in the nascent market for mobility as a service from around 2030 (writes Peter Donaldson). The first two designs created under this Steel E-Motive (SEM) initiative were revealed at the recent Battery Show Europe and Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Technology Expo in Stuttgart, where WorldAutoSteel’s technical director George Coates and Ricardo’s chief engineer for vehicle attributes Neil McGregor outlined the progress with them so far.

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Matrix aimed at seal and EMI issues

The Electrically and Thermally Conductive and Electromagnetic Interference Shielding Materials (ETEMI) project aims to enhance conventional elastomers, liquid silicon rubber and thermoplastics to address sealing and EMI issues at the same time in EVs. This is driving the development of a new class of electrically conductive sealing materials.

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NeoGraf Solutions adds advanced graphene targets for energy storage markets

NeoGraf Solutions has extended its range of graphite materials with the launch of Graf-X graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) and graphene precursors (GPs) for a range of energy storage applications.

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Battery recycling

Recycling batteries from e-mobility platforms, particularly lithium-ion and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, is an area of increasing focus for the e-mobility industry.

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Nanotech alloy ups HV power

The LISA (Lithium Sulphur for Safe Road Electrification) European project is developing a 20 Ah solid-state lithium-sulphur pouch cell with high gravimetric energy of 450 Wh/kg and volumetric energy density of 700 Wh/litre that will be stable for at least 1000 cycles. The first step is a proof-of-concept 21700 cylindrical cell with a capacity of 3 Ah.