May 3, 2024
Benoit Charette
Volvo is teaming up with a battery company to create adaptive technology that monitors battery conditions in real time to improve range.
How it works
This is the intelligent use of software algorithms to squeeze significantly more range out of electric cars. Volvo has partnered with Breathe Battery Technologies and become the first automaker to use the company’s Breathe Charge device, which takes a different approach to powering the battery to speed up charging.
33% improvement in charging time
Volvo says it expects Breathe Charge to reduce the time it takes to quickly charge its new 10% to 80% electric vehicles by almost a third. It depends on the battery type, Volvo says, and tests have indicated improvements of 15% to 30%. Regardless, the improvement is significant over existing charging techniques.
Work in real time
While traditional charging is carried out in a staged manner according to a set of rules, Breathe’s software takes an adaptive approach to controlling the battery in real time without posing a threat to the well-being of an individual battery. The algorithms it uses take into account battery health in real time to avoid the risk of battery charging via lithium plating of the battery’s negative electrodes (anodes).
A different process
What should happen during charging is that the lithium ions insert themselves into the anode material, which is usually graphite-based in a lithium-ion battery. During discharge, they are released by the anodes and absorbed by the cathodes (positive electrodes). The process alternates when the battery is charged and discharged.
An adaptive method
If too much power is used during charging or the temperature is too low for the power used, lithium ions can form a metallic plating on the surface of the anodes, reducing battery capacity and increasing internal electrical resistance. This affects an electric vehicle’s performance and, perhaps worse, accelerates the battery’s aging process. An even less attractive consequence of lithium plating is the formation of dendrites, which resemble the roots of a plant. The dendrites can grow and eventually penetrate the separator between the anode and cathode, heralding the end of the battery.
Safer
Being able to apply intelligent software to the charging process means that batteries can be safely charged as quickly as possible without the process becoming a guessing game. Software has always been important in high-voltage lithium-ion batteries, all of which have built-in battery management systems. But as research continues, the use of software could become at least as important in battery development as the evolution of battery chemistry.
With coach information
About the Author
Benoit Charette / Owner and editor-in-chief Benoit Charette has been practicing automotive journalism for 30 years. He is founder, owner and editor-in-chief of L’Annuel de l’automobile, which he has published since 2001. He hosted the shows RPM and RPM+ on V and Légendes de la route on Historia. On the radio since 1986, he hosts the show ça tête la route and participates for the second year in the show Passion Auto on RDS in addition to putting the official website of L’Annuel de l’automobile online on annualauto. That.
