How often should you charge your EV’s LFP battery?

Sono Sion LFP battery packAutomakers are increasingly turning to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for affordable EVs, and packs with that chemistry can benefit from a different charging regimen than that usually used for the currently dominant nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistry. As laid out in a recent Engineering Explained video, automakers are recommending...

GM-Samsung $3.5B battery plant coming to Indiana

2024 Chevrolet Equinox EVSamsung SDI on Wednesday said it had signed an agreement with General Motors for a joint EV battery factory in Indiana. First reported by Reuters, the deal calls for the two companies to invest $3.5 billion in the factory, which targets annual production capacity of 27 gigawatt-hours of cells. Samsung reportedly expects the factory to begin mass...

Battery maker Northvolt shutting down R&D in California

Northvolt lithium-ion battery cellSwedish battery firm Northvolt is shutting down a research and development facility working on lithium-metal batteries in California and moving all development work to its R&D hub in Vasteras, Sweden, the company said Tuesday. Northvolt had been conducting some development work on lithium-metal battery technology—an alternative to the...

EV battery costs dropped 90% in last 15 years

Mercedes-Benz Alabama battery factoryThe average price of a lithium-ion battery pack for a light-duty EV has decreased 90% over the past 15 years, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates. In 2023, the DOE estimates pack prices averaged $139/kwh on a usable-energy basis for production at scale, meaning at least 100,000 units per year. That's still not quite at the magical...

Porsche gives used Taycan batteries second life powering plant

Energy storage system utilizing Porsche Taycan battery modulesUsed Taycan batteries are helping power Porsche's Leipzig factory in Germany The batteries are from pre-production vehicles that were used for testing Porsche said the batteries provide up to 5 MW of energy After they've degraded too much for continued use in EVs, battery packs still have plenty of usable capacity for stationary energy storage...