If your electric vehicle could charge in less time than it takes to grab a cup of coffee, would you make the switch? One tech company thinks it can solve the charging challenge and reduce "range anxiety," too.
California-based Sila, a leading advanced battery materials company, announced that it has achieved a 20% increase in EV range per charge. It said it can also deliver faster charging capabilities through the development of nano-composite silicon-anode battery technology.
Dubbed Titan Silicon, Sila's battery innovation features silicon anodes that can go from a 10% charge to an 80% charge in just 20 minutes. The company said it thinks it can reduce this time even further — getting it down to 10 minutes in future iterations.
"With the wide adoption of EVs, consumers are looking for best-in-class solutions that deliver best-in-class performance, and our solutions provide just that: longer range and faster charge," Gene Berdichevsky, Sila's co-founder and CEO, told Freethink.
Sila's technology also claims to reduce battery weight by up to 15% and increase space by up to 20%, and it's also compatible with existing battery form factors.
Silicon anodes have been touted as the next significant advancement in battery technology for years. A number of car companies, including Tesla and General Motors, have shown enthusiasm for the tech. But the first EV manufacturer to access the tech is expected to be Germany's Mercedes-Benz. Its 2024 EQG will feature the Titan Silicon cells, as InsideEVs reported.
Replacing graphite with silicon allows for the battery to hold more energy in the same amount of space, Freethink reported. Its chief challenge has been that it can degrade the battery more quickly than graphite anodes. But Sila said it's addressed that, too.
"We've spent over a decade in the labs," Berdichevsky told Freethink. "We've gone through over 70,000 iterations of this material — researching different recipes, different configurations, different formulations, how to build it into different types of cells — and ultimately landed on some recipes that worked really, really well."
Berdichevsky told Electrive that Titan Silicon is the highest-performing nano-composite silicon in the market today. Berdichevsky said that Sila's battery and materials teams "are constantly iterating and improving upon our chemistry to deliver the best, and most cost-efficient results possible."
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