Lithium-Ion Batteries for Ev, Hev and other Industrial Applications

So called “batteries” are generally sized in the range from one to hundreds of kWh, addressing a market roughly divided in two segments: transportation and stationary applications. This market is mainly addressed by lead-acid and NiCd systems. Large special batteries for space and defense generally use more advanced and sophisticated chemistries, such as nickel-hydrogen, silver-zinc, silver-aluminum oxide, etc. One of the most exciting questions in this battery business today is: will the “Li-ion revolution” which occurred in portable batteries extend to larger battery systems? Obviously, that would only occur if two main conditions were satisfied: better answer to a real need, and in a cost-effective way. This chapter will review the most important applications in which Li-ion might bring benefits, and will describe the technical status today.Going back a little over the last 5 to 10 years, the possible use of Liion in large batteries was first considered in electric vehicles, for which high specific energy is crucial to grant a sufficient range. In parallel with the development of portable Li-ion, very important R&D programs started about 8 years ago aiming at demonstrating the feasibility of such batteries in electric vehicles. These programs were supported by a strong financial effort all over the world: European Commission and french government organizations in Europe, DOE / USABC in USA, MITI / NEDO / LIBES in Japan (addressing first the stationary batteries for home individual power sources). Saft was one of the few companies involved from the beginning. Then, with the fast developments of HEV's, Li-ion also had the opportunity to demonstrate its very high potential in terms of specific power and power density.