GM News: GM Next Generation Ultium Powered by OneD Battery Science?

[David]

This year, the auto industry is seeing a wide range of battery investments from all players into various college startups from new denser versions of traditional Lithium-ion batteries to solid-state lithium batteries.

GM and  OneD Battery Sciences have signed a joint research development agreement focused on the potential use of OneD's silicon nanotechnology in GM's Ultium battery cells to drive increased energy density for long range and reduced cost. GM Ventures and Volta Energy Technologies participated in a joint Series C funding round, which raised $25 million for OneD funding.

What is this joint research agreement about one would ask and the answer is SINANODE platform. The SINANODE platform is OneD's new Lithium-ion cell technology that uses silicon to significantly increase battery density. Silicon is well known to store 10 times more energy than graphite. OneD's technology is in adding more silicon onto the anode battery cells by fusing silicon nanowires into EV-grade graphite. This increase in energy density can open the door to smaller, lighter, more efficient battery packs that could achieve higher driving range at a lower cost.

Example is the GMC Hummer Ultium Battery pack:

Current Battery pack: 220 kWh in size with a usable 200 kWh weighing 2,923 lbs from 24 modules, 24 cells each for a total of 576 pouch cells in a battery pack that fills the complete underside between all four tires for an estimated 350 miles of range. 

OneD's SINANODE Battery pack estimate:

• Existing battery pack size and configuration would mean a 2,200 kWh battery pack, with a range of 3,500 miles at a weight of 2,923 lbs.
• Reduced to the same output would give you a 22kWh battery pack at 293 lbs for 350 miles. Yet with such a weight reduction, one could expect to get a few more miles out of the battery pack then. 

GM has designed the Ultium platform to be very flexible and as such, the collaboration with OneD will focus on this advancement in EV range, performance and cost allowing GM to scale to more than one million EV production by 2025. One Ultium cell production plant has begun production of cells in Ohio, with 3 more plants to come online by early 2023.

What is this silicon nanowires technology?

Per OneD Battery Sciences CEO Vincent Pluvinage: “We believe that the winners of the EV race will be those who can effectively add more silicon to the battery cell, in a way that doesn’t disrupt existing supply chains and processes,” 

OneD has been working on this technology of Silicon Nanowires for 15 years that has led to over 240 granted patents. This has enabled OneD's business model to focus on licensing the SINANODE technology to industry partners like GM for faster scaling of manufacturing at a lower cost. The current funding will allow OneD to further SINANODE R&D plus move forward with a full pilot production line to provide OEMs and battery manufacturers like LG and Samsung the ability to incorporate the integration of this technology into existing production lines in manufacturing pouch cell for various sized battery packs.

Check out the website for even more details of this EV battery technology.

OneD Battery Sciences SINANODE

 Per OneD's own website, Silicon Simplified.

Silicon nanowire-infused (SiNW) graphite is the centerpiece of SINANODE's Silicon Technology Platform which also includes a fully developed manufacturing process/scale-up plan and flexible cell design options. 

SINANODE delivers:

• Tripled energy capacity of the anode
• Faster charging speeds
• Greater Power
• Reduced graphite
• Lower cost per kWh
• Reduced carbon footprint

Currently before this silicon solution, the expansion and breakage of silicon limited the amount used to an extremely small percentage with only modest performance gains. SINANODE silicon nanowire technology is according to OneD the only silicon solution that meets the technical and economic challenges to insert large quantities of silicon efficiently allowing the creation of high-performance battery cells for all levels of EVs from High-performance to affordable efficient subcompacts.

Check out more details on the SINANODE web page: SINANODE - OneD Battery Sciences (onedsinanode.com)

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[David]

GM is making good progress on their battery production sites.

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