Lab powers up to improve hybrid vehicle batteries

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Sandia National Laboratories is trying to build a better battery for the hybrid vehicles of today and the fuel-cell vehicles of the future.

Researchers are working on a lithium-ion battery, which holds the promise to cost less and perform better than the nickel-metal hydride batteries hybrids now use, said Dan Doughty, manager of Sandia’s advanced power sources research and development department.

Lithium-ion batteries aren’t new technology. In the past few years, they’ve become the power source for many laptop computers because they perform better than previous computer batteries.

But automotive technology is more complex.

Lithium-ion batteries would have to be cheaper than nickel-metal hydride, last as long and weigh less, “which is a very hard problem,” said Doughty, who has worked in the power sources group for 13 years. A battery also must be abuse-tolerant – meaning if it fails, it won’t cause other problems.

If those issues can be solved, “the manufacturing base would grab this and run,” Doughty said.

Sandia receives $1.5 million a year from the Department of Energy’s FreedomCAR program for the lithium-ion research.

FreedomCAR is aimed at developing electric-powered vehicles to help free the United States from dependence on foreign oil. Sandia and four other national labs – Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley, Idaho and Brookhaven – are working on different aspects of developing hybrid technology.

Hybrids aren’t as clean as fuel-cell vehicles, but they deliver better mileage than comparable gas engines by switching between an electric motor and gasoline engine. The U.S. hybrid market increased by more than 140 percent in the past year – but hybrids cost about $3,500 more on average.

Researchers have been improving the lithium-ion battery for a decade. What’s needed now is testing and analysis to validate the battery’s life and performance in hybrids, as well as its real cost, said Ted J. Miller, of Ford Motor Co..