BMW is Privacy policybetting on a better battery.
On Tuesday, the company announced it's teaming up with Bay Area-based Sila Nanotechnologies (known as Sila Nano), and promised electric vehicle (EV) battery improvements within five years.
SEE ALSO: Your iPhone may be driving Apple to desperate measures in a race that’s bad for the planetSila Nano wants to improve rechargeable lithium-ion batteries by using silicon instead of graphite. The company and BMW want to incorporate the technology into EVs by 2023.
Gene Berdichevsky, CEO of Sila Nano, said in a call Tuesday that his tech is "highly scalable" and can be dropped into existing manufacturing facilities -- such as a BMW battery factory. Last year the German car company sold 100,000 electric vehicles.
"It’s not a bespoke thing you can make in a lab and never get to scale," Berdichevsky said.
Sila Nano says it wants to initially increase battery capacity by 20 percent, which could be used to speed up charging or build smaller battery packs. Eventually, that number could increase to 40 percent.
Sila Nano replaces graphite anodes (negatively charged electrodes) with its material, a nano composite with a lot of empty space, so that when silicon is used it can expand and contract, Berdichevsky explained.
"The hard part about using silicon is that it swells a lot," he said. "It causes huge problems in the battery."
With the space Sila Nano creates, the benefits of silicon (which holds more lithium ions than graphite) can be utilized without compromising the battery. But the amount of Sila Nano's material needed for a car versus a phone is significant -- another reason this tech isn't going to show up in EVs overnight.
The Wall Street Journalseems sold on the aggressive timeline for EVs, but expects wearables and other smaller consumer electronics to benefit from the battery boost sooner than cars, closer to two years.
Topics Electric Vehicles
Biggest Tech Fads of the Last Decade
The Lioness of the Hippodrome by Susanna Forrest
UK restaurant which trademarked 'pho' responds to TikTok backlash
Cooking with Andrea Camilleri by Valerie Stivers
Best Apple Watch Ultra 2 deal: Save $60 at Best Buy
Redux: A Window like a Well by The Paris Review
Charm and How to Come By It by Dubravka Ugresic
CES 2024: Hands
Celtic vs. Bayern Munich 2025 livestream: Watch Champions League for free
'Scram!' TikTok just made it to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour
Best robot vacuum deal: Save over $100 on iRobot Roomba Q0120
A Message from the Board of Directors by The Paris Review
CES 2024: Hands
Staff Picks: Forms, Flounder, and Funerals by The Paris Review
Hinge partners with Esther Perel for new prompts
Slack's new 'Catch Up' feature knows you're overwhelmed and overworked
Isn’t Black Representation What We Wanted?
'Scram!' TikTok just made it to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour
Best Apple Watch Ultra 2 deal: Save $60 at Best Buy
More Primitive, More Sensual, More Obscene by Marina Benjamin
It's 2017, and Samsung is still launching flip phonesTesla's Solar Roof tiles now available for preThis guy makes amazing coffee art that is seriously next levelEven the experts think some passwordCry of the week: Jimmy bests Chuck on 'Better Call Saul'Stop worrying, everyone: Trump's picks for FBI director are excellentNintendo games were used to smuggle spiders. Sweet dreams, gamers.Netflix's new series is definitely going to make you paranoid about dating appsThe time has come to remove Facebook from your lifeSpring raises $65 million to fund a shopping mall on your smartphoneMark Zuckerberg's Oculus trial transcript reveals his vision for Facebook VRCry of the week: Jimmy bests Chuck on 'Better Call Saul'We are what we wear — and that matters a lot in job interviewsSteve Harvey does NOT want anyone coming into his dressing roomFox News sent a very strange push notification and the internet reacted accordinglyInstagram artist draws extremely boring but necessary acts of selfThis teen's amazing DIY dress is ready to light up promHerd of sheep join runners in a German marathonHarry Styles is asked if his new song is about Taylor Swift and it gets super awkwardThis teen's amazing DIY dress is ready to light up prom Google just took visual search to a whole new level Facebook removes VR game at 2018 CPAC due to Parkland shooting Someone added googly eyes to illustrations of dinosaurs, and they look a lot better Parkland student activists get real on 'The Ellen Show' Teens on fire: Of course the 'Hunger Games' generation knows how to fight the NRA Facebook offers up a $50 million distraction as it plots its metaverse How Bachelor Nation’s favorite data scientist tracks everything from screen time to dress colors 12 best tweets of the week, including Taco Bell, adult baby diaper driver, and Bingus This picture of Kylie Jenner's baby bump became a thirsty meme #TwitterLockout blocks conservative users, requires phone number That robot Adorable exchange between Ryan Reynolds and Tessa Virtue reignites Moir shippers Here's 1 emoji you definitely shouldn't tweet at J.K. Rowling U.S. men's curling team make history and take home first gold medal The Galaxy Watch 4 is really nice. I'm not sure I need it. Olympic North Korean speed skater appears to try and trip his Japanese rival mid David Harbour actually did the Hopper dance with penguins and all is right with the world Student who survived school shooting mixes humor with activism tweets Amazon makes half Steve Jobs' really bad job application up for auction
3.7468s , 8207.3125 kb
Copyright © 2025 Powered by 【Privacy policy】,Exquisite Information Network