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Jul 04, 2023

This New Technology Could Eliminate EV Battery Range Degradation In Cold Weather

A change in battery chemistry could end the problem of poor performance in the cold. Electric car batteries have become one of the biggest focus points in automotive research. A car is one of the

A change in battery chemistry could end the problem of poor performance in the cold.

Electric car batteries have become one of the biggest focus points in automotive research. A car is one of the worst places one can put a battery. EV batteries get repeatedly drained and recharged (batteries don’t handle getting emptied very well), rattled over bumpy pavement, cooked in the worst of the summer heat, and frozen in the winter. Batteries, like the people who use them, do not handle cold weather very well. (Anyone using a battery-powered camera to take snapshots in the snow has probably noticed the charge indicator drop downward far faster than it should have.)

However, there's some good news. Researchers have discovered a possible solution to that last problem. By altering the formula in the battery, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy may have devised a battery that can hold just as much energy in the cold as it can at an ideal room temperature.

Related: What Nobody Is Telling You About Solid-State Batteries

As a quick refresher, an electric battery has two electrodes with an electrolyte between them. The electrodes are connected to the wires that carry the electricity to whatever device is using it. The electrolyte essentially stores the electricity until it is used. It is usually a liquid or a paste (except for solid-state batteries, where the electrolyte is– as one might guess– solid). To make electricity, the electrode at one end of the battery reacts with the electrolyte. This chemical reaction releases electrons. The electrode at the opposite end of the battery has a different chemical reaction with the electrolyte. Instead of releasing electrons like what’s happening at the other end of the battery, this reaction requires extra electrons before it can happen— such as the ones that have been freed up by the chemical activity at the opposite end of the battery.

Because of the way a battery is made, the electrons can’t simply hop from one end to the other to get where they’re needed. Instead, the electrons must exit the battery through the electrodes and travel through the wires that are connected to the battery. This conveniently happens to send the electrons through whatever motor, light, or stereo the batteries happen to be powering. This is why batteries stop producing electricity when disconnected from a device that uses them. With no way to get electrons from one end of the battery to the other, the chemical reaction stops until the next time the electrical device is used.

Related: 10 Things You Should Know About Solid-State Batteries

The scientific breakthrough is a new additive for battery electrolytes called “lithium difluoro(oxalato)borate.” This is generally shortened to the more pronounceable (and easier to type) “LiDFOB.”

It has a huge advantage over other additives already in use: it works when batteries get cold. The car would still have a good driving range in severe winter freezes. Scientists have claimed that a LiDFOB battery is good at temperatures as low as -4° F (-20° C). Additionally, LiDFOB batteries have retained their capacity after getting drained and recharged 400 times in laboratory tests. One might point out that an EV battery will be drained and recharged well over 400 times during its life, and that is one reason why LiDFOB batteries are still in the testing and development stages.

LiDFOB batteries are also less dangerous when the batteries catch fire. Lithium-ion batteries are notoriously difficult to extinguish because their own internal chemistry fuels the flames. They can burn hot enough to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. Some may remember that hydrogen gas is what made the Hindenburg so explosive. (Before anyone panics, EVs are no more fire-prone than a car with a half-tank of gasoline.) However, LiDFOB batteries don’t have this danger of self-perpetuating, explosive fires. While they can catch fire in an accident, the resulting fires would be far easier for firefighters and rescue workers to manage.

Related: 10 Cars That Weigh Less Than The Hummer EV’s Battery

To put it simply, the technology isn’t ready to go into mass production yet. Like the water-based batteries that also show a lot of promise in laboratories, LiDFOB batteries aren’t ready to be put under every car and into every cell phone. After all the laboratory kinks get worked out, they still need to be tested against the harsh realities of the real world before anyone starts cranking them out in factories.

Additionally, the mass-production methods haven’t been fully worked out. As one might easily infer, scaling up battery production is a lot harder than doubling a cupcake recipe. Furthermore, LiDFOB is prohibitively expensive. One scientific supplier currently quotes a price of $239.50 per gram.

Lastly, no one is quite sure how fluorine in batteries would change the recycling process. The fluorine itself would have to be carefully captured and recovered. Fluorine compounds were a major cause of the hole in the ozone layer. (As a clarification: pure fluorine does not harm the atmosphere. However, compounds that contain fluorine do. As it is unrealistic to pretend that fluorine in the air will simply free-float and never react with anything it bumps into, the fluorine needs to be carefully contained.)

Related: Everything We Know About GM’s Ultium Battery Technology

LiDFOB is not the only battery technology in the works. Right now, electric batteries are one of the biggest areas of scientific research. Many people in the 1980s groused against the proliferation of batteries, which went into everything from Walkmans to cheap toys. However, their objections seem quaint compared to how omnipresent batteries are today. This has made the shortcomings of batteries harder to ignore. The demand for rare-earth materials (all of that lithium has to come from somewhere), the danger of fires, the need for more thorough recycling processes that extract absolutely everything that could possibly be reused, the need for batteries to survive being repeatedly drained and recharged, and other issues have become more urgent.

EVs have made all of these problems stand out more than ever before. For many people, the battery in an EV is the largest one they will ever have in their house. EV batteries must withstand harsh weather, the constant risk of punctures from careless driving, and being constantly shaken and rattled on under-maintained roads. Furthermore, and this doesn’t get discussed as much, the (still nascent) EV era may be the first time such large batteries have been sold en masse to people who won't bother to worry about them.

Car enthusiasts often forget that most drivers don’t think about the powertrain all the time. The batteries in EVs will therefore have to be designed to withstand years of use by people who don’t care about proper battery maintenance (what little there is). While automotive purists love to deride the so-called "appliance cars" and the people who own them, such vehicles make up the majority of cars on the road. An EV battery must be able to survive being under a car that gets maintained as little as possible. For all these reasons (and others), batteries are currently one of the biggest areas of EV research. Regardless of whether LiDFOB batteries live up to their initial promise, it is absolutely certain that in less time than most people think, the EV batteries of today will seem as charmingly outdated as a 1950s engine.

Writer and occasional reluctant perpetrator of engine swaps, James O'Neil is a malaise era enthusiast and also fascinated by the many ways the auto industry has since recovered from those dark days. Cars of choice: Toyota Corolla (any year) or 1982 Chevrolet Caprice.