Because of lithium-ion’s superior power and energy density compared with earlier battery chemistries, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids will soon begin to compete with and replace motor vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.

Unfortunately, U.S. industry shows every sign of missing out on this paradigm-changing technology. While Detroit was building gas-guzzling SUVs and large pickup trucks, the Japanese, South Koreans and Chinese were perfecting the manufacturing of lithium-ion battery cells with heavy government support. Their governments understand that he who makes the batteries will one day make the cars. Today, U.S. companies produce less than 1 percent of all lithium-ion hp 371785-001 battery,hp 372772-001 battery cells.

The $2 billion federal investment will give the U.S. battery industry a last chance. But with more than 160 applicants — each with its own political champions and technology advocates — there is a serious danger that this chance will fall victim to the political expedience of spreading the money around and trying to make everyone happy.

That must not happen. Getting it right will require an industrywide collaboration that ensures technological and industry flexibility, large-scale production and domestic ownership of cell technology.

Technological flexibility is critical because lithium-ion technology is changing rapidly. Betting on any company just because it claims current technology leadership could be a bad and stale bet. Likewise, betting on individual hp 398876-001 battery,hp 417066-001 battery  companies based on their relationships with existing automaker supply networks also might backfire.

Another key is to gain huge efficiencies by making lithium-ion battery cells in large quantities. Spreading the battery awards widely around the battery industry will doom the chances of any U.S. firm successfully competing in the world market. Success requires scale.

Finally, it is critical that U.S. companies maintain control of basic cell-manufacturing technology. Semiconductors are a parallel. In the late 1980s, the U.S. semiconductor industry organized SEMATECH, a public-private consortium of U.S. companies, which, with about $500 million in federal grants, reversed the loss of semiconductor manufacturing technology to Asia. SEMATECH is largely responsible for U.S. companies leading the world today in computer technology.

The most important lesson of SEMATECH is the need for U.S. companies to collaborate when struggling with heavily subsidized foreign rivals. It maximizes technological flexibility, permitting new hp 346970-001 battery,hp 367759-001 battery to get to market quickly. It permits the pooling of limited resources to produce low-cost lithium-ion cells. And it ensures domestic automakers will have access to a key component that may determine which companies make the cars of the future.

How it works is that the lithium resides in a material designed to move through the hp 398876-001 battery,hp 417066-001 battery quickly, paving the way for charges to be shifted in and out of storage at a much faster rate than what’s possible when relying on lithium ions to act as the primary charge carrier. The process involves creating a disorganized lithium phosphate coating on the surfaces of LiFePO₄ crystals. Tweaking the ratio of iron to phosphorous in the starting mix and heating the material to 600C under argon for several hours, a material with a glass-like coating is created with high lithium mobility. This allows lithium to move quicklly through the outer coating.

The end result is a hp 346970-001 battery,hp 367759-001 battery that can fully discharge in under 10 seconds, a feat that previously would have required using supercapacitors. Capacity retention is improved too, as after 50 charge and recharge cycles, no significant change in the total capacity of the battery was noted.