Technology entrepreneur Kenan Sahin and other researchers are working together to develop future technologies for solid-state lithium-ion batteries in an effort to make them more affordable.
Sahin said at a conference in Berlin this week that his company, TIAX, has developed a new battery composite called GEMX, which can reduce the demand for cobalt in battery cathodes.
Cobalt price is a key concern for electric vehicle manufacturers. The mass production of electric vehicles cannot bypass the core materials of such vehicle batteries. The price of lithium-ion batteries will increase or further increase the price of electric vehicles, exacerbating the gap between electric vehicles and traditional vehicles The intensity of competition, after all, the subsidy price advantage is no longer obvious after subsiding.
Although the battery demand for lithium is higher than cobalt, the supply of lithium is stable, and new sources of lithium are coming online.
Cobalt is another matter. Cobalt mines are only distributed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Today, child mining incidents have been criticized by international public opinion, and the amount of mining has also been imaged. Since 2015, the price of cobalt has tripled.
Sahin said that the new material he invented could reduce the amount of cobalt (proportion) in lithium battery cathodes from nearly 20% to 4%, resulting in a significant reduction in the cost of electric vehicles.
The invention of the battery material will help many battery manufacturers and car companies. Matsushita, which supplies Tesla, said that in the future, the material may make lithium batteries no longer use cobalt metal.
In 2016, Sahin provided core cathode materials based on lithium nickel-oxide to BASF in Germany, and it is unclear whether BASF is a new customer of Sahin.
Sahin said his company has a technology use agreement with a major car company. He hopes its technology will help more car companies and battery makers.