In the latest EV Talk webinar, Dr Euan McTurk is joined by an esteemed panel of industry experts including Graeme Cooper (Jacobs), Emma Kendrick (University of Birmingham), Lucy Crane (Cornish Lithium) and Fergal Harrington Beatty (AMTE Power) for an exploration on battery chemistries, supply chain and material sustainability and the impact of electric vehicle use on the National Grid.
A recording of the webinar has been made available to view.
During the webinar panelists answered a series of questions from audience members and those have been published below for reference.
Q – How long until we expect to see Sodium-Ion taking market share for BEVS?
A – I’d estimate not until 2025 as the supply chains will need to scale up to be cost effective – we will be making cells from our gigafactory in volume from 2026 (Fergal Harrington Beatty)
Q – Is Cornish Granite uniquely special in Britain for its Lithium content or might there be lithium to be discovered in other granite areas?
A – It’s unique in the potential size of the lithium resource. The granite itself is relatively enriched in lithium compared to other granites, but its certain pockets that have high enough levels of lithium that mean its economically viable to extract them. The potential to extract lithium from geothermal waters exists across the country. There are some lithium enriched granites near Weardale and also in Scotland where I believe there are companies exploring now. (Lucy Crane)
Q – Are there any affordable lighter weight batteries on the horizon?
A – Typically new lightweight chemistries are higher cost because the don’t have the economies of scale behind them to drive costs down. We see sodium-ion as being cheaper than Li-ion in the long run (Fergal Harrington Beatty)
Q – I heard someone get excited about possible lithium content of seaweed – nonsense or not?
A – There is lithium in seawater and seaweed. Perhaps later iterations of lithium extraction technology might be useful for extraction from those. However it is in such low concentrations in seawater that you’d have to move a lot of water through a process plant to recover some lithium. (Lucy Crane)
Q – Should 3-phase be mandated for new builds so the majority of vehicles can charge faster when C02 is lowest?
A – In the new distribution price control it is more likely that 3 phase will be the default from April onwards (Graeme Cooper)
Q – There is an ongoing discussion on taxing EVs based on their weight therefore focusing on the quantity of material used. Do EV buyers/drivers need to seriously consider battery size vs battery range?
A – Indeed, the more efficient the EV is the more efficient use of raw materials it makes. That should be a key consideration for any buyer. (Fergal Harrington Beatty)
Q – Most ICE cars I have owned are worth less than £1k after 10 years. Assuming the battery is still at 80% or so, what value would the battery have to an owner as a home storage system?
A – I’d predict EVs are used past 80% battery capacity. Turning packs from EVs into home storage can be done but there’s not currently a wide scale scheme to do so. (Fergal Harrington Beatty)
Q – Will we see more PHEV batteries being replaced before BEV batteries?
A – No, PHEV batteries are under much less strain relative to those in BEVs so don’t degrade as quickly.