Lithium Race For Electric Cars After Samsung Galaxy: Battery Of The Future - Solid State Lithium.

Now 3 Trillion Dollars industries are investing in Lithium Batteries R&D: Communications, Transportation (Electric Cars) and Utilities. New and better technologies will be introduced, lithium batteries will become cheaper and safer, providing an even longer range for electric cars. My magic formula for the mass market for electric cars of 20/200 is just around the corner: $20k buys you a beautiful electric car BMW 2 type with over 200 miles range. All DIEsel and Gas-powered cars will become obsolete within next 15 years. I believe that Elon Musk is already working on Solid State Lithium batteries at Gigafactory.

Back Into The Future: Lithium Will Power Us For The Next 50 Years And Then Robots.

Catalyst For The Lithium Energy Storage Technology: Samsung EV Battery Offers 500km Range With 20 Minutes Of Charge.

"Samsung Galaxy battery problems were not the best advertisement for this South Korean giant and many have missed that Samsung is making its way up into the EV market as well. Samsung is building its own Lithium Megafactory now as well. As we have discussed before, we have reached the bifurcation point for the Lithium Technology of Energy Storage when giants from three multi-Trillion dollars size industries are investing in R&D: Communications, Transportation and Energy with Utilities. 

The result is the learning curve with costs for lithium batteries going down at least 16% per year. It will be important to know the more technical details about new Samsung Lithium Batteries, but the trend is apparent even now. Lithium Megafactories are rising all over the world and competition will bring better and cheaper lithium batteries very fast now. I expect that lithium cells for batteries will become commodities at some point like solar panels. 

GM Bolt and Tesla Model 3: two new electric cars priced below $40k and with 200 miles range will bring us the mass market for EVs. 300 miles seems to be the new range target for a number of automakers when you can forget about any range anxiety. Tesla Model S and X are closing on this mark, Ford has just announced the development of all-electric SUV with 300 miles range and now Samsung will drive hopefully BMW into the 21st century.

As we have discussed before, the fast charging capability could be the problem at Samsung Galaxy battery. You will notice from Lithium Batteries 101 links provided below that mobile phone batteries are very different from the auto ones. But Samsung still will have to address the image problems because of Galaxy battery disaster, I expect that the result will surprise a lot of people even in our industry. Samsung will have to move up the scale in quality/cost for its lithium batteries. New developments will drive the innovation. It is time for the future batteries which will power us for the next 50 years and after that robots. Lithium Solid State and Lithium Air are moving closer to commercialisation. Read more Lithium Batteries 101"

Lithium Battery Wizards: What Is The Real Problem With Samsung Galaxy Battery?

  Samsung Galaxy recall due to the faulty batteries is making the headlines and we will read a lot about "the dangerous electric cars" in the next few weeks. I will not waste time to EVangelise those who are being paid to continue to poison us all with cancer hazard deadly emissions by ICE-age technology.  And will stop just reminding everybody that there are about 17 ICE cars catching fire every hour in the United States. 

  I will address those who is really concerned about the safety of lithium batteries. I will be the first of them as all cars will be electric very soon and we all need the best: safe and most powerful lithium batteries available ASAP.

  I will try to dig out with experts what is the real problem with Samsung Galaxy batteries.  I am not buying that it is "just a few faulty lithium cells." We have the structural problem and have to move fast to the next level of lithium technology with Lithium Solid State technologies. Only then we will be able to address the demanded high energy density with necessary safety in place.  My few questions to address:

1. Was it Samsung SDI lithium battery used in Samsung Galaxy?

2. What is the chemistry of that battery - is it Lithium Cobalt?

This could explain a big part of the trouble - from June 2015: Samsung's New Graphene Technology Will Double Life Of Your Lithium-Ion Battery

"The graphene layers anchored into the silicon surface accommodate the volume expansion of silicon via a sliding process between adjacent graphene layers," Samsung says in a paper published in the Nature journal detailing the results of its research. "When paired with a commercial lithium cobalt oxide cathode, the silicon carbide-free graphene coating allows the full cell to reach volumetric energy densities of 972 and 700 Wh l-1 at first and 200th cycle, respectively, 1.8 and times higher than those of current commercial lithium-ion batteries." 

The idea to "double pack" the amount of energy in the most volatile Lithium-Cobalt chemistry can be "the dead end" even if you use a lot of words like nano and graphene.

3. I have never used Samsung mobile phones, but "super fast charging" option with very low level of BMS ( Battery Management System) with Lithium Cobalt cell's chemistry is the sound of potential trouble.

4. Were Samsung lithium batteries involved in HP products recall as well?

  My first few observations will be that larger screens demanded by social media addicted consumers helped manufacturers of mobile devices to hide the larger lithium batteries and the big problem with lithium cobalt chemistry. It looks like Samsung was pushing the oldest lithium-ion technology used by mobile devices to the limit. "Super fast charging" is particularly detrimental to lithium cobalt batteries with very low level of basic BMS.

Argonne National Lab.

  For your information: Lithium-Cobalt batteries are mostly used by mobile communication industry, including Apple. Tesla is using Lithium NCA battery cells provided by Panasonic. And Lithium NMC battery was developed in the U.S, licensed by LG Chem and now is coming back in GM Volt and Bolt batteries. The charts above provides the initial information on different lithium chemistries. Chinese companies are mostly using Lithium-Iron Phosphate based chemistries for their batteries.
  Now Elon Musk's confirmation that Panasonic lithium cells will be used exclusively for Tesla Model 3, despite rumors of Samsung involvement, looks like "super smart" move.  Tesla and Solar City combination of growth pains do not need another blow from Oil and Auto lobby now. I do really hope that Elon Musk is already working on Lithium Solid Sate at Tesla Gigafactory and Dyson with his $1.4 billion investment in this technology after buying Sakti3 are not just headlines. 

  And please do not forget that I am in "sweet sugar business" - please do read all my legal disclaimers. Lithium is a sugar for the Coca-Cola industry, whoever will be coming out with the best products will be using it. Why do I think so and results of my research can be found on this blog. Read more Lithium Batteries 101."