Scania & Northvolt Announce New Battery For Heavy-Obligation Vans

Scania, the heavy truck producer that’s a part of Volkswagen Group, and Northvolt say they’ve teamed as much as create a battery for heavy-duty electrical vehicles that may final so long as the autos themselves — about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles). That’s necessary to reassure heavy truck prospects that changing batteries is not going to be a part of the electrical truck expertise.

The world is determined by heavy-duty vehicles — tractor trailers, field vans, trash vehicles, dump vehicles, fireplace engines, and the like — to carry out many of the duties wanted to get items to market. No vehicles, no commerce. The diesel engine is the unsung hero of the world’s freight and cargo industries. Its major characteristic is an abundance of low-speed torque to get closely laden autos transferring from relaxation. Electrical motors even have numerous low-speed torque. In reality, they develop their most torque at zero rpm, which makes them perfect to be used in any truck designed to hold heavy masses.

The issue is, diesel engines produce various carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, and wonderful particulate matter that spew from their exhaust stacks into the ambiance. It’s true that there are artificial fuels that may change typical diesel, however there may be little or no such gasoline out there and it typically prices greater than regular diesel gasoline produced from oil. Plus, there’s nonetheless some air pollution from burning it.

The Scania–Northvolt Battery

In a joint press launch, Scania and Northvolt say that in validation assessments, the lithium-ion cell they’ve developed collectively has demonstrated an excellent helpful life which is able to allow battery packs produced from these cells to energy vehicles for 1.5 million kilometers – equal to a truck’s complete lifetime. Produced with zero-emissions electrical energy, the cell’s carbon footprint is roughly one third that of a comparative {industry} reference.

The collaboration between Scania and Northvolt started in 2017 when the 2 corporations joined forces to develop and commercialize an industry-leading battery cell for heavy industrial autos. Now the partnership and its shut collaboration have come to fruition, because the long-duration cell is being produced on the Northvolt Ett gigafactory in northern Sweden. Scania says it would inaugurate a brand new battery manufacturing unit in Södertälje, Sweden, the place battery cells will probably be assembled into battery packs for the beginning of manufacturing of industrial quality electrical vehicles.

A brand new super-sized electrical truck from Scania is hitting the highway in Norway. Photograph courtesy of Scania.

Peter Carlsson, CEO and co-founder of Northvolt, stated within the press launch, “On the outset of this partnership, Northvolt and Scania agreed to an formidable timeline for the event of a high-performance battery cell which might allow their plans for electrifying heavy transport. To have proceeded by way of intensive growth and validation phases, and now be delivering cells from Northvolt Ett which exceed our preliminary expectations by way of efficiency is an incredible accomplishment for everybody concerned.”

“As we speak marks a milestone on the trail in direction of a sustainable transport system. The way forward for heavy transport is electrical, and to allow the shift and to proceed delivering on our model promise in direction of prospects to be premium, Scania wants top-performing battery cells for our electrical vehicles,” Scania CEO Christian Levin added. “As the event of the battery cell began, we focused excessive efficiency, low working prices and lengthy lifetime. We selected a requirement for the cell to allow a 1.5 million kilometers lengthy lifetime for a heavy-duty Scania car. The assessments present that this requirement cannot solely be met, but in addition exceeded.”

As a part of the Northvolt’s dedication to establishing a provide of sustainable cells, Northvolt Ett is powered by 100% fossil-fuel-free electrical energy generated by hydropower and wind energy. As a result of fossil-free power and integration of extra sustainable manufacturing options at Northvolt Ett, the estimated carbon footprint of the cell at full serial manufacturing is roughly one third that of a comparative {industry} reference cell!

“Northvolt’s mission to construct the world’s greenest batteries matches Scania’s objective to drive the shift in direction of sustainable transport completely. I’m actually wanting ahead to placing the ultimate puzzle items collectively forward of the take-off of premium electrical autos later this yr,” stated Levin.

Listed below are the cell specs supplied by the businesses of their joint press launch:

•    Cell format: Prismatic
•    Capability: 157 Ah
•    Nominal voltage: 3.6 V
•    Lifetime: 1.5 million kilometers in heavy responsibility industrial transportation

Relating to the declare of a decrease whole carbon footprint, in a footnote, the businesses examine their battery cell to an IVL 2019 lithium-ion NMC 111 cell: “Cradle-to-gate local weather change impression calculation was ready within the method proposed by EU laws utilizing the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) EF2.0 database, to offer a projection of cell footprints from Northvolt Ett in full serial manufacturing.”

Cautious CleanTechnica readers will discover that the press launch avoids offering any particulars concerning the new long-life battery cells by way of what battery chemistry is used or if there are any modifications in anode or cathode expertise that contribute to an extended than regular service life. There are additionally no efficiency knowledge supplied that contact on how the brand new battery cell performs in  opposed circumstances equivalent to excessive chilly — which has a major impact on battery efficiency. We’ve got reached out to the businesses for extra info and can replace this text if we be taught extra.

The Takeaway

The lesson right here seems to be that battery cells are usually not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Heavy truck prospects care not a whit about 0-to-60 mph instances or prime pace. They do care about reliability, longevity, and whole working prices. If an electrical truck requires a brand new battery pack midway by way of its helpful life, that’s clearly one thing that may straight have an effect on working value calculations.

Battery corporations and producers are notoriously tightlipped concerning the batteries being utilized in immediately’s electrical autos. Tesla, for example, makes use of NMC battery cells in lots of its automobiles however LFP in some others. A driver could or could not know from behind the wheel what cells are used within the car’s battery pack. Prospects for used EVs know even much less concerning the batteries within the automobiles they’re shopping for.

To the perfect of our data, the Tesla Semi will use NMC battery cells within the long-range (500-mile) model however could use LFP within the short-range (300-mile) model. We all know that Tesla is dedicated to utilizing cylindrical battery cells within the 4680 format, however we don’t know a lot about what’s inside these “cans.” It appears that evidently Tesla has settled on the format and is now tweaking the chemistry and the electrodes inside to get the efficiency it’s on the lookout for.

Sooner or later, there may very well be a number of variations of 4680 cells for various use instances — one of many Roadster 2.0 and one other for the Tesla Semi, for example. At one time, Ford had two V-8 engines with precisely the identical displacement — the 351 Windsor and the 351 Cleveland — however that they had totally totally different efficiency traits.

Battery expertise is altering quickly. That’s a superb factor. The brand new long-life battery cells for Scania and Northvolt could also be awful at powering a household sedan, but when they assist transition the world of industrial quality vehicles to zero-emission driving, that will probably be a phenomenal factor.