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BOSCH -SB LiMotive drives the development of electromobility forward with innovative battery systems
(ENP Newswire Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) ENP Newswire - 14 September 2011
Release date- 13092011 - SB LiMotive is accelerating the development of electromobility with its innovative battery cells and battery systems.
The market prospects for the German-Korean joint venture are excellent, since it brings together the expertise of two successful industry specialists - Samsung SDI and Bosch.
The dream of sustainable mobility is becoming reality: there could be millions of electric cars on our streets in the not-too-distant future. All around the world. Quiet, odorless, and emissions-free. For sure, electromobility is a growth market with enormous potential.
Batteries will be at the heart of tomorrow's cars. Around the world, researchers and developers are working tirelessly on the key aspects of this essential component: power output, range, safety, service life, and cost. What manufacturers are aiming for is a battery system that is perfectly tailored to the requirements of the automobile. Lithium-ion batteries are currently the most promising technology for storing energy in the car. And the competition to make this core technology ready for series production is in full swing.
SB LiMotive: powered by its pooled expertise
In the race to come up with the best innovations in the field, SB LiMotive's aim is clear - it wants to be among the frontrunners. It has every reason to be optimistic, since the joint venture between Samsung SDI and Bosch is ideally positioned. It brings together the key competencies of these two experienced industry specialists: globally leading lithium-ion technology and manufacturing expertise in the area of consumer cells; and a comprehensive wealth of experience of automotive technology and its demanding requirements.
Samsung SDI can look back on many years of success in the large-scale series production of lithium-ion batteries. Bosch's contribution to the joint venture is its unrivaled systems, electronics, and software know-how. Each company has a 50 percent stake in SB LiMotive. 'We are pooling the specific abilities of the two companies in order to actively shape the future of electromobility,' says Jingun Lee, the president of SB LiMotive.
Since 2008, the German-Korean company has been working intensively on developing innovative lithium-ion energy-storage systems. The step from small batteries for notebooks to car batteries is a big one. Engineers in Germany and Korea are showing true pioneering spirit as they develop various sizes of cell, entire battery systems, and sophisticated battery management systems. 'There's a special spirit in the atmosphere here. You can feel the team's enthusiasm as they work to stay ahead of the competition,' says the executive vice president Dr. Joachim Fetzer. The more than 3,000 patents on features of battery systems that are held by SB LiMotive and its parent companies are proof of just how much knowledge has been gained.
On track for growth, worldwide
SB LiMotive currently has just under 900 associates, and this figure is growing by the day. 'We are looking to grow strongly and we want lots more good people to join us. We offer fabulous opportunities for creative minds,' Fetzer says.
The company is headquartered in Giheung, South Korea, and this is also where cells are developed and validated. At a second location in Ulsan, South Korea, SB LiMotive has built 34,000 square meters of ultramodern production facilities. Up to 1,000 jobs are being created here. Series production of battery cells began at Ulsan in 2010. The young company is also present in the United States through its subsidiary Cobasys. Its Orion, Michigan, location is focused on research and development, while battery production is located at Springboro, Ohio.
SB LiMotive has opted for prismatic battery cells on account of the advantages they offer in terms of safety, mechanical stability, and temperature regulation. The company currently offers eight types of cell from 5 Ah up to 60 Ah across the five VDA classes. Three of the five standardized VDA classes are based on SB LiMotive formats.
By 2013, SB LiMotive will have a manufacturing capacity that is sufficient to produce batteries for some 50,000 electric vehicles. But all the indications are that growth will continue. SB LiMotive is looking to push its global cell manufacturing capacity further, so that it is in a position to supply batteries for more than 180,000 EVs by 2015. 'Since we're expecting demand for our products to be high, we're going to expand our capacity even further. We're looking for an additional site in Europe and we're planning to start construction at the end of 2013,' Jingun Lee says.
Impressing customers
SB LiMotive will invest 500 million dollars in its products and locations up to 2013. The management's optimism is justified, as order books are already full. BMW was one of the first automakers to opt for the German-Korean joint venture's battery cells. They will feature on board BMW's first all-electric vehicle. Known as the Megacity Vehicle, the BMW i3 will go into series production in 2013. The BMW Active E electric vehicle also relies on SB LiMotive cells. A test fleet will go onto the roads in 2011.
The first Chrysler LLC and Fiat Group electric car, the Fiat 500EV, will also be powered by a complete lithium-ion battery system made by SB LiMotive. It is scheduled for launch in the United States at the start of 2013. SB LiMotive currently has contracts to deliver to eight manufacturers, and it is taking part in a development project for USABC, a consortium of the United States' three biggest automakers. It is in close dialog and also working on research projects with other manufacturers.
At the moment, SB LiMotive is in extensive discussions with many other large automakers. 'Our ability to deliver large volumes of high-quality products on time impresses our customers. What's more, we're present in all three world regions - Asia, Europe, and the Americas. That's another reason I'm convinced we'll soon be winning further attractive major orders,' Jingun Lee says.
Making the most of innovative potential
The mood of optimism is palpable across the entire company. The whole team is working flat out to be able to offer as soon as possible optimum large-scale solutions that meet the tough requirements of the automotive industry.
Battery technology lies at the very heart of hybrid and all-electric cars, and it is the key to their success. Applying lithium-ion technology to the automobile is particularly demanding in terms of efficiency, weight and space requirements, safety, durability, and robustness, especially considering the extremes of mechanical and climatic stress that occur.
As they strive to make automotive lithium-ion technology ready for series production, SB LiMotive's engineers are not only concerned with the core topics of energy and power density. They also focus especially on the central areas of safety and service life. Cost considerations are also never far from their minds as they develop cells, battery systems, and sophisticated battery management systems.
Making electromobility affordable
After all, one thing is clear: customers will only buy electric cars if they are fit for everyday driving and affordable. Batteries are decisive in this, since they are an electric car's most expensive component.
The market for consumer goods demonstrates how prices can be reduced: through standardization, economies of scale, mass production, and large purchase volumes. The price per kilowatt hour of consumer battery cells - for notebooks or cell phones, for instance - is a third of what it was ten years ago, with sales growing tenfold over that period.
And things are set to go the same way for electromobility. The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) has already made some headway toward standardizing the overall dimensions of lithium-ion cells. This will make a modular approach much more feasible. But there is hardly any chance of standardization on a battery-pack or system level, since the many different vehicle concepts call for a wide variety of installation sizes, cooling designs, and pack shapes.
SB LiMotive's strategy on this is clear: 'We're leveraging our experience of mass production to create the high standards that will ensure outstanding quality and product strength across the whole value chain,' Fetzer says.
Increasing energy density
Acceptance of electric cars will be driven by higher energy density - and this can also bring down costs. The more energy a single cell can store, the fewer cells the battery system needs. This not only makes production cheaper, it also makes the battery smaller and lighter with no reduction in performance, giving the electric vehicle the twin benefits of more space and lower weight.
Today's batteries have a capacity of 22 kilowatt hours, weigh approximately 220 kilograms, and take up as much space as a trunk of a compact car. This is where the SB LiMotive team comes in. The engineers are working hard to optimize cell and system performance for hybrid and all-electric vehicles. One of their considerations is that a high peak output increases driving enjoyment and vehicle responsiveness, for instance when accelerating. That is why high-output cells are found first and foremost in hybrid vehicles, where the electric drive acts as a booster for the internal-combustion engine.
Increasing range
For all-electric vehicles, range is crucial to success. It is in this regard that energy density takes on the greatest importance. Battery cells are optimized to deliver a long-lasting, stable flow of energy. Since its founding in 2008, SB LiMotive has pursued the goal of increasing energy density by a factor of two to make it possible for a compact battery to achieve a range of 200 kilometers. 'We will get there by optimizing the materials in the cell's chemistry - for instance with new cathodes, innovative separators, and electrolytes,' Jingun Lee says.
Extending service life
A further fundamental requirement for a successful battery is service life. A battery has to last a car's lifetime. SB LiMotive's aim is to keep the battery's available capacity from dropping below 80 percent of its initial capacity over a period of at least ten years. Hybrid vehicles will rack up over one million 'small' charge cycles over that time, since hybrids switch very frequently between motor and generator mode, recovering energy during braking. The company is hoping to achieve as many as 3,000 full-charge cycles for all-electric cars. Assuming a range of 100 to 150 kilometers per charge, this equates to a total distance traveled of around 300,000 kilometers and an active operating time of 8,000 hours.
Improving safety
Safety is a top priority for SB LiMotive - across the whole value chain. Customers will quite rightly only consider purchasing an electric car if it is just as safe as a car with a conventional powertrain. SB LiMotive guarantees the mechanical, electrical, and chemical safety of its battery systems by employing innovative concepts that are designed to protect them from internal and external damage. The systems come with sophisticated battery management that registers all important parameters and ensures an optimum balance between driving needs and the battery's operating status.
For mechanical safety, for instance, the battery is housed in a rigid structure that prevents the cells from causing any damage in the event of an accident. Electrical safety involves effective protection against internal short circuits and electric shocks, for example. The concept of chemical safety covers not only the danger of electrolyte leaks but also protection against uncontrolled exothermic reactions. A good example of optimization through the use of materials with a high degree of intrinsic safety is the shutdown separator: it automatically interrupts the flow of current in the cell if the temperature becomes too high.
Operational safety of the finished product relies on the highest levels of precision and perfection in manufacturing processes. SB LiMotive's manufacturing takes places in air-conditioned clean rooms under conditions of precisely controlled humidity. Over 1,500 production line parameters are painstakingly monitored and documented. This means production stays within tolerances of only fractions of a millimeter - a much higher level of accuracy than is seen in batteries for digital cameras and cell phones.
Intelligent control
The ultimate guarantor of safety and reliability is the battery management system (BMS). It is effectively the battery's brain. It continuously monitors and controls the cells' current, voltage, temperature, and level of charge. The BMS thus keeps the battery from overcharging, from losing too much charge, or from overheating by cutting the flow of additional energy to or from the battery. Sophisticated thermal management ensures that the battery always operates within its optimum temperature range. A battery will offer lasting performance if it is kept at a constant operating temperature of between 20 and 40 degrees Celsius. The BMS continuously analyzes and forecasts the battery's charge level, guaranteeing high system performance and a long service life. Without doubt, SB LiMotive has already achieved much on this front. But the company is looking to go even further: 'We want to make the battery management system even more intelligent, so that we set the benchmark in all relevant variables,' Joachim Fetzer says.
Conserving resources
Given the value of the raw materials used in the battery and the rapid development of electromobility as a growth market, it is particularly important to ensure that lithium-ion batteries can be properly recycled. SB LiMotive is committed to using resources responsibly, and the company has set itself the target of recycling more than 80 percent of the materials it uses. In this regard too, the joint venture can profit from the experience and options offered by its parent companies, which give it access to existing recycling arrangements. As regards consumer cells, for instance, Samsung SDI and Bosch both have many years of experience of recovering and reusing batteries in the power tools sector. The Bosch Car Service network, which spans the globe with some 15,000 partners in 147 countries, will in future not only be able to carry out diagnostics and repairs on electric vehicles but will also be able to remove, collect, and send batteries either for reuse or recycling.
[Editorial queries for this story should be sent to newswire@enpublishing.co.uk]
((Comments on this story may be sent to info@enpublishing.co.uk))
(c) 2011 Electronic News Publishing -
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