Mercedes-Benz’s newest electric city bus uses solid-state batteries

Lithium-ion battery expertise has made spectacular positive aspects over time. Today’s cells are cheaper than they’ve ever been, however lithium-ion nonetheless leaves quite a bit to be desired when it comes to power density in comparison with liquid hydrocarbon fuels. Which signifies that placing sufficient of them in a automobile to provide it a suitable vary provides quite a lot of mass and quantity. Which is the place solid-state batteries are available.

In a standard battery, a pair of electrodes are immersed in an electrolyte answer, and it is this liquid electrolyte that enables ions to maneuver from one electrode to the opposite. However liquid electrolytes can leak, and that is not a fantastic factor, whether or not the fabric is extremely corrosive, as in a lead-acid battery, or extremely flammable, as in a lithium-ion battery. So researchers world wide have been experimenting with batteries that use a solid electrolyte as a substitute, with a selected eye on using them in electric vehicles.

And now, it appears it is a expertise that is able to be deployed, as Mercedes-Benz simply introduced that its new eCitaro and eCitaro G metropolis buses can be obtainable with roof-mounted solid-state battery packs, developed in conjunction with the Canadian energy firm Hydro Quebec.

Though particulars are nonetheless slightly restricted proper now, Mercedes-Benz says that the solid-state pack has a 25-percent greater power density than even essentially the most superior lithium-ion chemistry. It additionally says that the solid-state battery has a a lot better service life than lithium-ion and is warrantying these batteries for 10 years or an power throughput of 280MWh. When configured with a complete of 441kWh onboard (composed of seven 63kWh packs), an eCitaro G has a variety of as much as 137 miles (220km) beneath favorable situations, or 105 miles (170km) within the depth of winter with the bus’s heaters working.

Nevertheless, these solid-state batteries aren’t good. Specifically, they are not capable of fast-charge at charges akin to lithium-ion, which is why Mercedes-Benz can also be providing the bus with an non-compulsory lithium-ion pack that may be charged at 150kW and even 300kW as a substitute. This makes use of a nickel-manganese-cobalt chemistry and is available in assemblies of 33kWh that may be mixed to provide a bus as much as 396kWh in complete.

Itemizing picture by Mercedes-Benz