Even though things have changed over the years, electric cars still have a problem with range. Since bigger battery packs are heavier, squeezing them in to get more content may not be a good idea. In this situation, solid-state batteries could be helpful. During Monterey Car Week, Honda officials told The Drive that they plan to use similar technologies to cut the weight of their batteries in half without cutting their range. According to conventional knowledge, automobile owners who worry about range should install more batteries. American Honda sustainability and business development vice president Jay Joseph states this will always lead to a cost, weight, and size return loop. “Adding more batteries won’t work indefinitely,” Joseph says that the best way to improve the range and usefulness of EVs is not to make the batteries bigger but to make them lighter and charge them faster. Solid-state battery charge regular lithium-ion packs faster because they are more stable at high temperatures. Better charging stations, not bigger batteries, are the honest answer to worries about range. BEVs with a range of 600 miles are only sometimes necessary if there are easier ways to charge. And technology will keep getting better. Joseph says a solid state can make vehicles lighter and extend their range. We’ve already said that we’re in the proof-of-concept stage with it. Shinji Aoyama, the Global Electrification Chief and Executive Vice President of Honda says that solid-state batteries will cut the weight by a factor of two. But, the energy density would increase by four times. Aoyama says the weight is almost half as much, but the energy is still the same. Currently, most battery packs for electric cars take up the whole floor of modern vehicles. If Honda’s solid-state batteries cut weight and size in half without hurting performance, future vehicles may have much more room on the floor. Could this make cars smaller? Will the space need more structural support, adding more weight to the car? When Honda gets there, it will cross those bridges. Solid-state batteries also cut down on the time it takes to make them. Since lithium-ion batteries have liquid chemicals, they need to be charged for a long time before they can be put in cars. Solid-state batteries might be cheaper because they don’t need these extra steps and can be made faster. To make solid-state batteries, factories would need to be changed, which would be expensive. Honda’s solid-state batteries are now in the proof-of-concept stage, and the company hopes to start pilot production in 2019. When it comes time to put EVs in consumer cars, it will be interesting to see what Honda does with a 50% weight decrease in the heaviest part of an EV. If we switched to solid-state components exclusively, we could double the output of the same vehicle. Roughly the same mass. Aoyama suggests we use a more compact electrical box whenever we construct something new. The company might make lighter, smaller EVs that last longer on a single charge than those already on the market. In the future, Honda may make smaller cars, like an electric Civic with 40 to 50 kWh batteries and a range of about 300 miles, based on how well the vehicle moves through the air and what kind of tires it has. Based on what Aoyama thinks will happen, it doesn’t look like Honda will do this immediately. The company may make SUVs with battery packs about the same size and weight as those in current EVs but have twice the range. One could be an electric Honda Pilot with a range of 600 miles and a battery size of 80 to 100 kWh. This way is more likely to work in the short term because it lets Honda use the platforms it already has and considers that technology today uses less energy. No matter which of the two methods Honda chooses, the result will be a solid-state battery that charges faster than a regular lithium-ion pack. If Honda can cut the weight of its batteries in half while making them more powerful and faster to charge, its hybrids and electric cars will be much more popular than anything it sells or wants to sell right now. Questions for different periods include how quickly it can bring this kind of product to market and whether or not it can beat competitors like Toyota.
