Batteries, for years now, had only a few breakthroughs and major development taking place in the battery-making process. For more than a decade, the human race is stuck with Lithium-ion batteries.
While researchers are hard at work to find a breakthrough battery technology, we are still a long way off from using them.
Since the world is becoming very conscious about our environment and turning towards becoming eco and striving to use and live on recycled products and are intended to use it in renewable energy, one day.
A lot of us have already started migrating to this idea of clean energy — therefore seeking out products and product makers such as Tesla, and many others who are striving to create products that run on renewable energy.
But the question is, are Tesla’s new 4680 batteries better than solid-state batteries?
And why is Tesla still chasing Lithium-ion when it has so many limitations and safety concerns? These questions will be answered today.
Tesla’s 4680 Battery
In the first quarter of this year, Tesla announced that it had delivered 184,800 electric cars that rely on conventional lithium-ion technology, manufactured by the Japanese builder Panasonic. Tesla also announced its new 4680 battery, which will be manufactured in-house starting with a pilot, China-based plant in 2022. The new batteries don’t use cobalt, but instead employ a high-nickel cathode. They also replace the graphite anode with silicon, the second-most-abundant element on earth.
Current batteries, including Tesla’s 21 70, feature tabs, which are metal components at the core that are welded to the electrodes. Manufacturing these parts is difficult and expensive, and the parts can be a weak link in the battery since the current flow through the tabs creates a hot spot that can cause electrodes to fail.
Tesla’s 4680 batteries have no tabs. According to Tesla estimates, the new design is 56 percent cheaper to produce and needs about half the real estate to generate the same power as a 74-kilowatt hour Model Y battery pack. The main advantage is that the laser-patterned shingles offer a shorter path for electrons to flow. Not only does Tesla claim this design will shorten charging time to as little as 15 minutes, but the company also says it will allow for faster electron flow when demanding power for better performance. Tesla says this will be the first million-mile battery, and estimates that it will retain 90 percent of its life after 4,000 charge cycles.
The technology is still at least a year or two away from being a viable power source for production vehicles (and, eventually, boats).
Solid-State Batteries
The holy grail for those looking toward an electric-powered future in boating is purported to be the solid-state battery. Carmakers that traditionally do the heavy R&D lifting for marine propulsion technology, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Hyundai, and General Motors, are among those investing in and banking on its eventual success.
In addition to eliminating volatile electrolyte liquids or gels, solid-state batteries can use different materials such as lithium metal that have about 10 times the capacity of graphite anodes, and take up far less space than carbon/silicon anodes. The reason lithium metal isn’t currently being used is that when combined with liquid electrolytes, it has a far greater tendency to form dendrites, which are stalagmite-looking structures that can grow from the anode and reach the cathode, causing a cell-killing short-circuit. With a solid electrolyte, the risk of dendrites is greatly reduced.
Solid-state batteries are now being used only for applications such as pacemakers because of the extremely high cost, But the benefits of a 15-minute charge time and capacity that could potentially propel a car up to 1,000 miles per charge are driving many car companies to invest heavily in this technology.
QuantumScape is a US company that attracted a $300 million investment from the Volkswagen Group, as well as an investment from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. The company said it has created fire-resistant test batteries with a four-layer cell, and that the batteries continue to function after 1,100 cycles, retaining at least 80 percent capacity.
The big differentiator for QuantumScape is that it uses a proprietary ceramic barrier to prevent dendrites from reaching the cathode. The difficulty was creating a ceramic barrier that isn’t brittle and that allows lithium ions to flow freely through it. While everyone is at a race trying to produce a long-lasting and highly powerful, and efficient battery. Solid-state is the first one to emerge out to battle lithium-ion.
The solid-state battery is being researched by a lot of automakers for instance, Samsung and Hyundai investing in Colorado-based Solid Power.

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