US: Ricardo and QinetiQ to collaborate on lithium-ion battery technology
Thursday, November 08, 2007, AutomotiveWorld.com
Ricardo has announced the start of a two-year collaborative project with QinetiQ, the UK-based defence research organisation. The British government's Department for Transport is funding the project, which aims to reduce the costs of lithium-ion batteries for hybrid vehicles and improve their performance.
According to Ricardo, the objective of the reduced cost lithium-ion (RED-LION) project is to demonstrate the application of new cell chemistry in a hybrid vehicle battery. The new cell is expected to reduce the estimated production cost by one-third compared to conventional battery technologies. Ricardo also claims that the cell is around half the weight of that in conventional batteries.
In June 2006 Ricardo, QinetiQ and PSA Peugeot Citroen launched a 100g/km CO2 Efficient-C full hybrid diesel demonstrator vehicle based on a Citroen Berlingo minivan. At that time, the companies stated that the manufacturing costs of such technology would need to be halved (to around US$2,900) to make it commercially viable.
Ricardo expects that RED-LION will demonstrate commercially viable technologies that are capable of delivering sub-100g/km CO2 emissions with superior performance compared to an equivalent current production vehicle.
Neville Jackson, Ricardo's technology director, says the new battery technology has the ability to deliver significant benefits to many vehicle types including electric and plug-in hybrids, as well as full diesel and gasoline hybrids.
Published on Thursday, November 08, 2007
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