EV Batteries Could Improve Range Significantly with Ultra-Capacitor Technology

NAWA Technology is working on the development of new ultra-capacitor technology that could significantly enhance the range of EV batteries. Currently, even the most advanced electric vehicles, including the Audi E-Tron, use large lithium ion battery packs. The use of carbon nano-tubes could make these batteries a whole lot lighter and could have significant impact when it comes to their efficiency.

NAWA Technology is working on the development of a fast-acting carbon ‘ultra-capacitor’ that could reduce the weight of a conventional lithium-ion EV battery pack by 30 per cent.
The company is making the ultra-capacitor using carbon and graphene nano-technology and claims that the new battery stores and discharges electrical energy a lot more quickly than a lithium-ion cell
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Ulrik Grape, chief executive of NAWA Technology, the company responsible for the device said that the new technology’s main advantage vantage is its speed of charge and discharge. NAWA’s carbon battery can even pick up energy from regenerative braking and supply it back to the motor very quickly.

Though ultra-capacitors offer very fast energy transfer, they do not have a large storage capacity and hence it would be optimal to integrate them into a conventional lithium ion battery to get the best of both worlds. Such a battery would provide instant power for improved performance, while keeping the number of the charge and discharge cycles the main battery performs to a minimum, thus extending its life.

NAWA claimed that a simulation on the battery pack of a Formula E racing car modified to include its ultra-capacitor demonstrated the same performance and range but weighed 30 per cent.

Another notable feature of the ultra-capacitor is its unique design. It offers a higher stored energy density than rivals by combining an electrolyte with microscopic coatings on the billions of carbon nanotubes inside the stack.

NAWA is aggressively exploring options for commercial production and is targeting premium European car firms first with the “aim of full production in 2022”. It expects to start making capacitors for power tools and material handling firms next year.