As we push towards the goal of net zero by 2025, the era of the internal combustion (IC) engine is drawing to a close.
Although consumer reliance on the humble petrol- or diesel-fueled motor car has been climbing at a steady and predictable pace ever since Henry Ford-style mass production caught on, there has been a modest dent in the demand for traditional vehicles, with nearly one in five cars sold in 2023 being electric.
So will this trend continue to grow? We would argue yes, but putting a timescale on this is a tricky task: the predictability we have seen with IC vehicles doesn’t apply to everything. Not all innovations buck conform to one clearly defined trend. And this appears to be the case with electric vehicles.
With nearly 20% of new cars being electric in some regions, electric vehicles (EVs) are steadily increasing their market share. In fact, in countries like Norway, adoption reached around 80% in 2023. This year, it’s projected that 25% of passenger car registrations will be electric, surpassing 17 million units in global sales. These numbers indicate a significant upward trend in EV adoption, especially in recent years.
Nonetheless, even taking these encouraging figures into account, EVs still only represent a small proportion of all vehicles on the road. This needs to change otherwise there’s a danger that EV adoption could stagnate.
What needs to change to boost EV adoption?
Apart from the natural laws of supply and demand, the main limitations hindering EV development are most notably cost, slower recharge rates and limited range.
This is where batteries come in as the key to addressing these hindrances.
Batteries designed for vehicles focus on overcoming a range of challenges. Weight, cost, and the sourcing of materials are all significant. Beyond these, one factor stands out. With, nearly 50% of consumers claimed they’d need a higher real-world range to consider switching from ICE vehicles to electric cars according to a recent survey by GoCompare – the limitations posed by a battery’s range is a key factor to be addressed.
This means that we are a long way off being reliant on fossil fuels to power our vehicles. However, a solution might be closer than we think.
LionVolt’s cutting-edge battery technology is a driving solution for electric cars and sustainable aviation by creating groundbreaking 3D solid-state technology for next-gen batteries.This new technology could be key to far greater EV uptake at a scale that could set a steep new trend.
What are 3D solid-state batteries, and how do they work?
The key to overcoming the challenges limiting the shift towards electrification are batteries and cells that are much faster to charge than those currently used and can extend range and performance. Central to these developments are advances in lithium-ion batteries.
In terms of range, the science revolves on energy density – how much energy can be packed into each battery for a given weight. To achieve high density, we are seeing a shift to more advanced products from materials commonly used in today’s cells. New anode technologies, including silicon and lithium, will increase today’s range and can be ‘dropped into’ the existing supply chain. To get a significant increase, the production process involves switching the flammable liquid common to old-style batteries with a solid, non-flammable material.
Obvious benefits to drivers and the planet alike range from,faster charging, higher performance, intrinsically higher standards of safety, longer battery life, and radically lowered carbon footprints
The real gamechanger here is extended range: driving ranges upwards of 800 km—or about 500 miles—are no longer the stuff of EV drivers’ imagination and this could be the stepchange we need for mass adoption.
LionVolts innovations in the battery space address consumer demands for extended range while also offering a safer, more sustainable alternative to traditional batteries.
This lays the foundations for an increased uptake of EVs in the future, but electric cars are not where the innovations end. LionVolt are also developing larger versions of these batteries that have the very real potential of fueling aviation. We could say when it comes to electrification to achieve net zero, the sky’s the limit (no pun intended!).
