Volkswagen MEB details

Pedro

The LGX E78 78Ah battery blades need to be charged and discharged at 0.3C for delivering their rated 78 Ah capacity and withstanding 2,000 cycles. They however tolerate a 0.5C charging rate, but in such case the 2,000 cycles specification doesn’t stand anymore.They however tolerate a 2.8C charging rate during max 10 second, like when recovering energy during braking.

Now comes the problem. For selling massively a car must grab a 200 km range per 10 minutes recharging. Cars that don’t meet such criterion will remain considered as “auxiliary cars” or “local cars” instead of “plain normal cars”. Say a car requires a 16 kWh energy for running 100 km. For getting recognized as a “plain normal car”, it must charge a 32 kWh energy in 10 minutes.This corresponds to a 192 kW recharging power, in reality a actual 212 kW recharging power after accounting from some losses.

Now look, in case the battery is a 60 kW battery, and in case we occasionally charge it at a 0.5C rate (within the LGX E78 78Ah battery blades specs), the max allowed charging power is 30 kW. Recharging 32 kW (for 200 km) will take approx one hour. Big problem indeed.

Now look, one may eventually exceed the specification. Say we recharge at a 2.0C rate. This is 4 times harder than the specification. This is not a small feat. Say you do this every day, 5 days per week, during 5 years (46 weeks per year). You will complete 1,150 cycles. The battery will be cooked. After 500 cycles, due to the wearing (more Joules losses), for gaining a 200 km range, you will require a 20 minutes recharge instead of a 15 minutes recharge. You are now significantly below the idea of driving a “plain normal car”. Moreover, each time you will rechange, you will feel frustration. Most cars will recharge using a 200 kW power, instead of the 120 kW power you are limited to.

Come on, Pedro, how can the Germans commit into this? Do they want to ruin their own reputation? Let us hope they succeed in industrializing better batteries, 100% made for “plain normal cars”.

See them at work here : https://www.monash.edu/news/articles/supercharging-tomorrow-australia-first-to-test-new-lithium-batteries

The researchers have an approved filed patent (PCT/AU 2019/051239) for their manufacturing process, and prototype cells have been successfully fabricated by German R&D partners Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology.

So look, Pedro, the German’s strategy is as follows. Through VW (the MEB), they announce electric cars on a massive scale, ready to reach thousands of showrooms. This way the existing battery cells suppliers like LG Chem, CATL, BYD, etc. must spend massive amounts of money for building massive battery cells factories everywhere in the world including in Europe. Then, horizon 2022, the German chemistry (actually Lithium-Sulphur chemistry) will reach industrialization, embedding the “12 cm blade” feature, “8 cm blade” feature, “built-in BMS” featuret and “dielectric oil immersed” feature. The pack energy density will reach 500 Wh (usable) per kilogram, and the pack cost will drop to $50 per kWh capacity (usable). The nominal capacity will be specified for a 1.0C charge/discharge rate. The max recharge rate that’s enabling 2,000 cycles will be 3.0C. The 20 kWh (usable) pack that you require inside a plugin hybrid car will cost 1,000 euro ex-works (1 million packs per year), and will weight 40 kilogram (just push a 12-cm blades 10 kWh pack under each front seat). Speaking of plugin hybrid cars, all european car makers will license the Toyota “HSD” system (e-CVT) and/or PunchPower “DT2” system (Hybrid DCT). The 100 kWh (usable) skateboard that you require inside a 100% electric car will cost 5,000 euro ex-works (1 million skateboards per year), and will weight 200 kilogram (8-cm blades skateboard). Consequently, the existing battery cells suppliers like LG Chem, CATL, BYD, etc. will require again investing massive amounts of money for phasing-out their old chemistry, and phasing-in the Germans’ chemistry.

Then, precisely, the Germans will offer financing most of the chemistry change, at the condition that they get paid a decent proportion of the profit that’s generated by the new chemistry.

Figure out such Lithium-Sulphur chemistry that’s weighting 3 times less per kWh capacity (at pack level), that’s containing no or very little Nickel and Cobalt, that’s embedding the BMS, and that’s simplifying the cabling and the cooling.

Figure out the profit you can make by selling the kWh capacity, not 1/3 the usual price (at pack level), but instead, 1/2 the usual price (at pack level). You give your partner, the possibility to survive, to reach massive sales, and to increase its profit margin percentage by say 33%. You, on your side, as technology provider, as lobbyist, as Li-S syndicate, you cash-in the remaining profit and you ensure that no newcomer attempts selling outside the Li-S syndicate.

Remember the Tungsten syndicate.
Remember Gilda.

Have a nice day.

p.s.
The day the Germans will have signed with LG Chem, CATL, BYD, etc, you will see how magically, the “grand software issue” that the Germans are presently facing, will instantly vanish. Think about VW “Tesla compatible cars”. Just like BMW “Tesla compatible cars”. Tesla can’t setup a dealer’s network taking care of maintenance and repairs and this is the reason why a couple of USA State Governors managed to interdict to Tesla, the right to sell cars over there.Tesla can’t properly cut, stamp, position and weld galvanized steel. Tesla can’t properly clean metal and spray paint on it. Tesla can’t properly design and produce up-to-date electronics embedding the automotive SPE (single pair ethernet) standard, and the corresponding high integration sensors and high integration motor drivers. Kind of disaster. No long term value here. On the other hand, Tesla is extremely valuable, once recognized as a brilliant company that’s taking care of the whole infotainment including autopilot, taking care of complete subassemblies like the “front module” and “rear module”, and taking care of the whole software editing, updating, upgrading, deploying. Yep there is tremendous value in there. Possibly not on a global scale, seeing what happened to Google in China. Can someone please reassess Tesla before it is too late?

Hello Pedro, very interesting! I was wondering – does someone know if VW could potentially also use cylindrical cells for their MEB platform? I heard that Rivian is achieving a very volumetric energy density. That being said, let’s see if they can deliver on that. It is more of an theoretical question.