Mercedes is experimenting with multiple-chemistry battery packs which have a couple of kind of cell.
A brand new kind of micro-converter and hooking up the battery cells in parallel not in sequence makes this doable.
This innovation will enhance battery pack efficiency, modularity and house effectivity.
Whereas the main points surrounding the impressively environment friendly new electrical CLA had been an important information we obtained whereas in Stuttgart final week, Mercedes-Benz additionally gave us a glimpse at what it’s cooking up for the longer term. Among the many many inventions we had been proven on the occasion referred to as Mercedes Future Expertise was a brand new kind of energy converter that enables for rather more management over a battery pack than ever earlier than.
Its programmable micro-converter will be wirelessly managed and embedded into the battery pack and managed wirelessly. This permits for management on a person cell pair, permitting for a lot finer adjustment of the cost that goes into each. For this technique to work, the cells must be linked in parallel, not in sequence, which unlocks new potentialities.
As an illustration, a automobile with this technique might stability the cost in its cells much better than right now’s EVs. It might detect and isolate broken cells with out affecting your complete battery pack, and it will additionally enable for a way more correct battery well being examine, which might simply have the ability to pinpoint drawback cells and examine their particular person parameters.
This new kind of micro-converter also can hold the whole battery pack voltage fixed whatever the state of cost. It usually varies with the state of cost.
Mercedes explains that “analysis outcomes present it’s doable to offer a relentless HV output of 800 volts, whatever the state of cost and the state of well being of the person cells. The output voltage of this automobile battery is now not depending on the variety of cells linked in sequence. The quantity is decided purely by the specified efficiency and capability class.”
If this makes it into manufacturing, it will additionally enable for rather more modular battery packs than what we now have in right now’s EVs, leading to extra environment friendly use of house. It might assist automakers reduce prices by making use of elevated standardization and modularization when utilized on a big scale.
Throughout a spherical desk discuss with Mercedes’ Chief Expertise Officer Markus Schäfer, we requested about the opportunity of utilizing a number of chemistries inside the identical battery pack, particularly each LFP and NMC cells. Schäfer advised us “Sure, that is precisely the thought, to combine and match,” and he confirmed that the opportunity of an LFP and NMC pack is within the playing cards. He didn’t say after we might see such a pack in a manufacturing automobile provided that this innovation continues to be within the very early levels of testing.
LFP (quick for lithium iron phosphate) batteries can higher take common quick charging all the best way to 100%, exhibiting much less degradation than NMC (nickel manganese cobalt) batteries. Additionally they have higher thermal stability and are extra reasonably priced. Nonetheless, NMC batteries can retailer extra present and are most well-liked for large-capacity battery packs that energy long-range EVs. Having each in the identical battery pack would have a number of benefits, profiting from each their strengths.
