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Why Mechanical Testing is a Critical Enabler for Continued Lithium-Ion Battery Innovation

“We forecast that the market for battery cells will grow, on average, by more than 20 percent per year until 2030, reaching at least $360 billion globally. There is also a realistic scenario in which the market accelerates and hits $410 billion by 2030.”—McKinsey Report, “Capturing the Battery Value-Chain Opportunity”

Lithium-ion (LI) batteries play a central role in the global mission to reduce carbon emissions through electrification of automotive vehicles, and this battery technology looks to be an explosive growth market for the foreseeable future. While alternative technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells may be a fit for certain applications, LI batteries remain the only proven technology able to:

  • Offer sufficient power capacity by weight.
  • Be cost-effective to manufacture at the large scale needed by applications like consumer vehicles.
  • Be manufactured in sufficient scale.

While lithium-ion battery designs have had proven success in consumer electronics for years, adapting this technology to the needs of the automotive industry introduces a range of new challenges. We discuss some of the most important below.

Key Challenges for Automotive Lithium-Ion Batteries

  1. Scaling Up Production to Meet Rapidly Growing Demand: ​​​​battery manufacturing is expected to grow at a breakneck pace to keep up with exploding demand. According to McKinsey, accommodating expected 30% annual demand growth for battery cells will require the equivalent of at least 90 new “gigafactories” in the next ten years.
    2.  
  2. Reducing Costs: LI battery costs are declining rapidly (up to 97% since their commercial introduction in the early 1990’s) and must continue to do so to achieve long-term cost parity with internal combustion vehicles.
     
  3. Securing Raw Material Supply: minerals such as lithium are essential for the production of LI batteries, and demand growth is already putting pressure on existing production capacity. So far, however, mining growth appears able to keep up with growing demand, with unconventional production methods on the horizon.
     
  4. Keeping Up with the Need for a Fast-Growing Workforce: accelerating demand growth means LI battery manufacturing is generating thousands of skilled manufacturing jobs, which can be challenging to fill in a historically tight labor market. This issue has already been recognized by policy makers—the US Department of Energy recently announced $5 million in a workforce development and apprenticeship program to help kickstart hiring and skill development.
     
  5. Improving Performance:  any improvement in battery performance translates directly to more performant, efficient electric vehicles. Even more precise quality control in manufacturing can have an impact on performance. How? In practice, lithium-ion batteries often vary substantially in capacity and degradation rates. To account for this fact, EV manufacturers must design vehicles with excess battery capacity (often on the order of 10-20%) to ensure a consistent end-user experience, where the battery performs up to specified distances even after variation in battery quality is taken into account.

    More precise quality assurance and testing can help reduce the need for excess battery capacity to accommodate margins for error in battery manufacturing—leading to lower cost, lighter weight batteries.

Innovation in lithium-ion batteries continues at an incredible pace as OEMs seek to address the challenges discussed above. As knowledge surrounding lithium-ion battery design and manufacturing continues to mature, exploring new frontiers in research, development, and quality assurance will be critical to achieving continued advancements. One important example is the mechanical testing of LI batteries under the operating conditions encountered in EV applications.

Why Enhanced Mechanical Testing Capabilities for Lithium-Ion Batteries Are Critical

Mechanical testing for LI batteries is a critical operational area which may easily go overlooked. Even engineering organizations which have developed their knowledge of battery efficiency at an atomic level for years may still have a relatively limited understanding of how batteries will perform under an actual mechanical load. Quality assurance testing teams who have focused on battery chemistry may have little familiarity with mechanical testing procedures and solutions. Issues such as deformation under mechanical force and chronic stress can dramatically affect the ultimate performance and effective lifespan of lithium-ion batteries. And the effects of these issues are simply impossible to predict without a robust mechanical testing program.

For a much deeper look at some of the most important issues associated with the mechanical testing of lithium-ion batteries, please see our whitepaper here. The guide covers six different challenges, ranging from rapidly evolving testing requirements, to the development of simulation driven modeling, to increasing throughput. Or you can learn about ZwickRoell’s LI battery testing solutions here.

                                                    Download the Whitepaper: Six Critical Challenges for Mechanical Testing of Lithium-Ion Batteries

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