It’s only 12 years now since the first generation Nissan Leaf went on sale and pushed the electric car, in its modern sense, to the centre of the motoring stage. Since then, huge advancements and improvements have been made, so that the Leaf’s then-cutting-edge 160km range and 50kW fast charging have now been eclipsed by 400km being more or less the minimum range for most EVs, and charging exceeding 350kW power.
Wind the clock back a century and a bit and 12 years after the first car — the Benz Patentwagen — went on sale, it was 1898 and most cars were still barely changed from horse-drawn carriages. Many still had tiller steering, some had carburettors that dripped fuel into open cylinders, and most had performance figures that could be outstripped by a quick horse. That’s the stage we’re at with EVs right now, so imagine the developments which will come in the next decade or so.
Chief among those will be solid-state batteries. These batteries, which replace the liquid-filled sections of current battery designs, will hold more energy, be faster to charge, safer in use, and more robust and reliable. Solid-state is currently seen as something of a “Holy Grail” of battery design, and there have been more than a few false dawns for the tech, but brands as diverse as MG, Nissan, and Toyota are all planning to have solid-state batteries on sale before the end of the decade. At first, they will be reserved for more expensive models, because the tech is still expensive, but as with all things — airbags, traction control, stability control, touchscreens — that tech will become more affordable and trickle down to more regular models.
The difference that solid-state batteries will make could be profound. Already the likes of CATL — China’s biggest battery maker — are talking about batteries that can last, and be warrantied for, one million kilometres, while Samsung is already claiming that its solid-state batteries will last for 20 years, which should put paid to concerns about battery longevity.
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Equally solid-state batteries can be charged much, much faster than current designs. Chinese firm Zeekr (part of the Geely group, and so a distant relative of Volvo and Polestar) has a new 007 saloon which uses a lithium-iron-phosphate battery design that, when connected to a sufficiently powerful rapid charger, can go from 10-80 per cent charge in 10 minutes and 30 seconds.
Speaking of lithium-iron phosphate, that sort of battery chemistry will likely become more prevalent in the coming years, as although it’s not as energy-efficient as the best lithium-ion designs, it’s way more reliable, and less sensitive to charging, so you can top your battery up fully more of the time without wearing it out.
Improvements in battery management and charging technology — accelerated by developments in artificial intelligence — will also speed up charging times. Charging points, in the future, will be able to “talk” directly to your battery, working out the optimum charging speed and battery temperature to give you a quicker charge that won’t wear the battery out.
Charging points will also change and will start to include automatic robot arms so that you can plug in without ever getting out of the car — handy when it’s raining, but more importantly a game-changer for disabled drivers wanting to switch to an electric car.
All of this might give some electric car buyers pause, as they may feel that current technology is about to be usurped by something new and better. While that will, in time, inevitably happen as EV technology develops, the fact is that the current state of the art is actually very impressive, and so will remain relevant for many years to come.
Deirdre Schwer, head of marketing and customer experience at Audi Ireland pointed out that the German car maker is at the cutting edge of lithium-ion battery and EV platform technology: “Audi is intensifying its electric vehicle product portfolio with the Premium Platform Electric or PPE; a key component for the expansion of the global range of all-electric Audi models.
“For Audi, it represents an important step in becoming a leading provider of sustainable premium mobility. For this next generation of electric vehicles from Audi, the company has redeveloped the electric motors, the power electronics, the transmission, as well as the high-voltage battery and all related components, and tailored them exactly to the requirements of battery electric vehicles” said Schwer. The PPE platform is already in use in the recently launched Audi Q6 e-tron SUV and also underpins the incoming new A6 e-tron saloon and Avant estate.
These developments go further than just making the batteries better, though. As Schwer points out, Audi is using PPE technology to make building electric cars more efficient and more affordable: “Audi is gradually refitting all production sites for the manufacture of all-electric models instead of building new ones. In line with the early decision to phase out the combustion engine, Audi has also intensively promoted the transformation of its employees and trained the workforce for fields of the future, for example in the new battery assembly plant in Ingolstadt.
“The scalable and future-proof electronic architecture allows Audi to offer various vehicle models and derivatives on a standardised electronic basis through the PPE. This approach reduces complexity in both development and production and creates additional economies of scale. In addition, the new electronic architecture forms the basis for future innovations. The PPE is part of the overall journey to carbon neutrality, beginning in 2026 when Audi will produce only all-electric vehicles, phasing phase out production of internal combustion engines by 2033.”
