What range anxiety? Car with 2,000 km range/charge to begin testing in 2020

For those who are not buying electric vehicles because of range anxiety, would 2,000 km of range in just half an hour of charging change your mind?

Australia based Baicheng New Energy (Brighsun) has made these claims about its super battery, which they call the 2U lithium-sulfur battery. The new battery pack has five to eight times more energy density than the current secondary batteries and promises a life of over 2 million kilometres. A mobile-phone version of the battery will last a week with a ten minute fast charge. After 8 years of research and development, the company has also reported that the 2U lithium-sulfur battery can maintain over 91 per cent after 1700 cycles of 2C current charge and discharge with a decay rate of 0.01 per cent per cycle. Their research have found that the battery has maintained more than 74 per cent capacity after 1000 cycles of 5C current charge and discharge with a decay rate of 0.026 per cent per turn.

Brighsun wants to address the issue where companies use lightweight materials in the production of electric vehicles to offset the battery weight (more batteries more range), which could compromise the safety of the vehicle, apart from the increased production cost. Lithium-sulfur batteries, however, offer high energy density, low material cost, easy recycling of batteries and safety. While countries like China, the United States and South Korea have already started working on this type of battery, the progress is minimal because of issues pertaining to battery life due to rapid charge and discharge.

The company has been working on the battery for eight years and have now developed the technology to overcome the defects of lithium-sulfur batteries. Brighsun has revealed that it has mastered the processes for the production of electrolytes, cathode materials, lithium sheet anodes and separators, to the level of mass production, and have applied for patents.

At present, Brighsun is discussing with potential investors to commence industrial trial production as soon as possible. The company is confident that industrial trials will happen later this year.

Pictured is the Mahindra MESMA 350V platform that is only for illustration.