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| 2012 ARPA-E Technology Showcase Envia Co-Founder, Sujeet Kumar with A123 Systems' Yet-Ming Chiang |
1) 400wh/kg
2) Automotive Grade (not a prototype)
3) $150/kwh
4) Validated by US Navy Testing
5) General Motors Funding of $17Mil
This combination of factors seems to be, quite clearly, the exact sort of breakthrough ARPA-E was designed to achieve. After another round of cycle testing at the Navy's Crane, IN facilities, we should be in a prime position to declare this ARPA-E's greatest victory to date which in turn would be the Department of Energy's greatest victory to date which in turn would be the Obama Administration's greatest victory to date. Consider the following rationale.
Envia's battery has the ability to create sub $20,000 electric cars (with no range problems even for heavy Americans) which when factored with total cost of ownership and with modest gains in production efficiencies, will make electric cars superior to gas powered vehicles....economically. As a country, we spend around $1Trillion/year on foreign oil and another $1Trillion on Dept of Defense whose main mission is to protect our energy supply lines. Eliminating those two misappropriations of US wealth holds the power to restore economic growth and spur innovation unlike anything we have seen to date. (I know. It's all very convincing. )
It's no wonder then that A123 Systems founder Yet-Ming Chiang stopped by the Envia booth at the ARPA-E Summit this week to ask a few questions... and congratulate them on their success. Chiang spent at least 20 minutes with the Envia founders and flipped through the Navy test result report they had on hand. He was visibly impressed. So does that mean Envia takes over A123 Systems as the next battery innovator on which people with deep pockets place their hope? That's not exactly clear since Envia's business model calls for "selling cathode material to cell vendors" such as A123...which would make a lot of sense. Companies like A123 have invested in production/manufacturing equipment. Envia doesn't want to go through a ramp cycle like that--they simply want to insert their innovation into existing infrastructure for speed to market. Yes, this is a glimmer of genuine hope for people who have waited patiently for an American energy storage breakthrough.
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| Torch Bearers of the Lithium Ion Tradition |
But is it actually a true American success? Not exactly. The investors to date comprise an international consortium of venture and business concerns including American, Canadian and Japanese companies. This is an internationally funded company, i.e., not a straight play American company. Even though Envia's headquarters are in Newark, CA, it's manufacturing facility is in Jiaxing, China which raises interesting questions about Envia's intention to actually develop anything substantive in the United States. It does not appear that they do. At least not in the Obama Administration sense of creating manufacturing jobs in the United States. :-( And finally, as we've stated before, lithium ion solutions will always have a question around the origins of the lithium--most of which is foreign.
So, yes, there is still room to sit around and wait for something better which leaves us to our increasingly lonely practice of speculating about EEStor...and Recapping. And...?
5 comments:
This is big news pending some more testing. On Envia's website, they claimed to have tested a cell that can store 1530 mAh/g. Their Navy tested cell was "only" 290 mAh/g. That's a 5x room for improvement on top of awesome performance.
All this time gone by with EESTOR not delivering, has allowed others to get in the fray. I'd rather have a supercap in my car just for the recharge cycles but these Envia guys are really close.
Thanks for recognizing Envia's achievement - our scientists and engineers have worked tirelessly for the past 4.5 years to get to these energy densities. Envia is a highly (highly) capital efficient model - almost all Series C funds from December 2010 are still in the bank.
Envia did take investment from Japanese chemical companies but did not give whatsoever any manufacturing or intellectual property rights to any of these investors.
The facility in Jiaxing does system assembly of cells. Envia views cell-making as an assembly process in contrast to materials development and manufacturing (which is bulk of the IP and BOM of the cell). Envia's material is manufactured in Newark, CA.
So far, it is indeed an American company but the market is international and we intend to enable all automotive OEM's around the world.
Joel
The 290mAh/g refers to the charge capacity of Envia's cathode and the 1530 mAh/g refers to capacity of the paired Envia's anode. Together the anode/cathode combination in Envia's 45Ah cell achieves 400Wh/kg.
To put the current cell level achievement in terms of vehicle performance - each charge/discharge cycle represents 300 miles (since at this 45Ah cell footprint and $125/kWh cell cost a 300-mile pack should be affordable). So 450 cycles represents 135,000 miles.
By the way, current state-of-the-art in automotive is 150Wh/kg for energy density and $250-$350/kWh for cell costs.
Mr. Kapadia,
First, congrats. It is always good to see such numbers.
If you do not mind answering a few questions:
1) While it makes sense to do assembly work in China for the Asian markets, will that be your only facility? It would seem to make sense if keeping in mind the current situation with hard drives and japanese car companies that have been devasted by local disasters.
2) Assuming that you will do multiple cell assembly sites Since you are doing material manufacturing in America, will you be building another cell assembly lines here in America?
It strikes me that with electric cars coming from multiple car companies here, that it would be more efficient to keep the work here rather than ship to China and then back again. In fact, if you do it in Michigan, you can ship the material via train to MI, assemble and then use it in GM, Ford, and still ship to EU via great lakes to Atlantic.
Thank you for your time.
@Unknown Thanks for the information.
I am excited for a great EV story. Envia appears to be that story.
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