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Currently, any kind of rechargeable battery relies on two electrodes that exchange ions through a liquid electrolyte. This works very well. However, there is a drawback, which is that some liquid electrolytes are flammable. If a Li-ion battery is subjected to any damage it could cause the electrolyte and electrodes to overheat.

Replacing the liquid with a solid electrolyte gives a Li-ion battery that is inherently much safer, because the solid electrolyte is not flammable.

Solid-state batteries substitute liquid electrolytes with a solid multilayer electrolyte which also includes the function to separate both electrodes, providing the following advantages:

• Smaller size for the same capacity. That also means less weight, which also contributes less mass to transport and a lighter vehicle, smaller engines and chassis and allows another type of design. 
• As there is not liquid electrolyte, there is no problem of internal overpressure with current high temperatures, therefore allowing faster recharges.
• Has better performance than a liquid electrolyte: less heat loss and therefore smaller and lighter cooling systems.
• The solid electrolyte is not flammable: it reduces the risk of fires.

The multilayer electrolyte prevents the anode growth of dendrites. This allows to have longer life cycles because the battery degrades less, and therefore also allows higher charge voltages (faster charges) and depth of discharge down to a lower voltage.

The manufacturing process will be simpler because you just have to add layers of different materials, which will make them cheaper once they have been developed and economies of scale kick in, they are likely to be cheaper than current lithium-ion batteries.

Conclusion:

• If we want to maintain the size and weight of the current batteries, we can have much more autonomy and less recharging time.
• If we want to maintain the current autonomy, the batteries needed will be smaller.
• In both cases the batteries will be cheaper, can be recharged faster and will have more life cycles.

This new technology will allow engineers to choose the autonomy, weight, recharge time and number of cycles wanted when they design a new vehicle, and al lot them with les cost because of its high capacity and energy density. 

Furthermore, it will be easy to think about 10 – 15 years lifetime of electric vehicles without replacing the battery.

LinkedIn:

Rodrigo Suárez - CEO: https://es.linkedin.com/in/rodrigo-suarez-cueto-05ab9357

NORWATT SL:https://cl.linkedin.com/company/norwatt-sl

Rodrigo Suárez Cueto