New battery breakthrough may make dangerous EV fires history

Worldwide a most modern pop-in talk over with to a Tesla (TSLA) store while shopping at my local mall, two older teenagers interrupted a conversation I used to be having with a sales rep about essentially the most up-to-date iteration of the Model three.

While I used to be hearing the salesperson talk in regards to the updated styling of Tesla's compact sedan, they asked a query in regards to the car's insides. It got my attention:

"Ayo, boss, is it true these catch fire?"

Though such incidents are a normal subject of headlines and Facebook (META) posts shared by relations who are skeptical about EVs, EV fires are real, but are so much rarer than think.

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In keeping with a 2023 report by the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, there have been three.eight fires per 100,000 electric or hybrid cars in 2022, when put next with sixty eight fires per 100,000 cars which also includes fuel types like diesel and hydrogen.

Additionally, Tesla's own global data shows between 2012 and 2022, one Tesla vehicle caught fire for every A hundred thirty million vehicle miles traveled, when put next with NFPA and U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) data showing one car fire occurred contained within the U.S. for every sixty eight million vehicle miles traveled.

No matter the data, the clips and images of burning Teslas and other EVs spread across the net are enough to take care of many skeptical people skeptical about EVs. On the other hand, a battery supplier to Ford and Tesla will have solved the issue for good.

LG Chem's EV battery leap forward

In a fresh announcement, South Korean LG Chem, the parent company of EV battery supplier LG Energy Solution, said it has devised an ingenious approach to strive against EV fires by preventing them from taking place contained within the first place.

In a collaborative effort with a special team of engineering academics from the Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) in Pohang, South Korea, LG battery researchers developed a special layer that may most probably also be used contained within the battery itself to suppress thermal runaway. This phenomenon causes EV batteries to ignite infernos that appear not you may to extinguish.

A few factors can trigger off thermal runaway in an EV battery, including, but not limited to cell damage, prolonged flood damage, crashes or short circuits. The act of thermal runaway describes the phenomenon when a battery overheats uncontrollably to some extent where it'll keep burning without consuming any oxygen.

As the battery cells get hotter, neighboring cells get hotter, causing a chain reaction that may most probably eventually trigger off the battery catching fire or exploding.

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While many modern EVs have safeguards like sensors and cooling systems protecting the battery, thermal runaway can still happen.

The people from LG Chem and POSTECH claim this is a thing of the past with something installed to the batteries normally referred to as a "safety reinforced layer."

In keeping with LG, the thermal runaway suppression subject matter developed in collaboration with POSTECH is a composite subject matter that changes its electrical resistance according to temperature. Placed between the cathode and the current collector, the device has an analogous function as a fuse, where it blocks the go with the flow of electricity when a battery starts to overheat, which is set ninety to A hundred thirty degrees Celsius (or 194-266 degrees Fahrenheit).

When at that temperature, the subject matter suppresses the warmth by altering its molecular structure and blocking the go with the flow of electricity at some point of the battery.

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LG tested this technology with both nickel-cobalt manganese (NCM) and lithium-cobalt oxide (LCO) batteries. The researchers found that after 10 kilogram (22 pound) weights were dropped on them, the LCO batteries caught fire Eighty four% of the time, and the NCM batteries caught fire 100% of the time.

On the other hand, when adding their experimental subject matter as intended, the researchers claimed the speed of fireplace contained within the treated lithium batteries dropped to zero p.c. On the other hand, the nickel batteries simplest caught fire 30% of the time and were extinguished by the experimental subject matter within seconds.

The timing of this leap forward comes at a time of distrust of EVs in South Korea. In keeping with Korea JoongAng On a on a every day basis basis, authorities contained within the us of a's capital and largest city, Seoul, have been rocked by a horrific EV fire in an underground parking garage in Incheon. The fireplace damaged 880 nearby vehicles and left 1,600 households without electricity and water for per week.

For that reason, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is proposing new rules that may most probably restrict EVs charged over ninety% from gaining get admission to to underground parking garages and put in force a charging limit of eighty% on rapid charges contained within the Seoul metro area.

LG says it plans to continue safety testing to enforce this tech in "large-capacity electric vehicle batteries" through 2025. LG Chem CTO Lee Jong-gu stated he is confident about what these breakthroughs can do for the tough EV market.

“It's a tangible research achievement that may most probably also be applied to mass production in a brief time frame," he said. "We can toughen safety technology to make certain customers can use electric vehicles with confidence and contribute to strengthening our competitiveness contained within the battery market.”

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