Mercedes Sees Big Potential in Organic Batteries, Report Says

Organic batteries sound like a concept from science fiction, but it’s exactly what Mercedes-Benz is calling a promising piece of technology, Autocar reports. These aren’t solid-state batteries that have been the holy grail for battery developers for quite some time; those rely on solid electrolytes instead of gel-like electrolytes in traditional lithium-ion batteries. Rather, organic batteries are composed of graphene-based organic-cell chemistry and contain a water-based electrolyte.

Andreas Hintennach, senior manager of battery research at Mercedes-Benz, recently indicated to Autocar that while solid-state battery research is moving ahead, those cells still have the disadvantage of long charging times, which makes them less suitable for automotive applications. Hintennach also suggested that another 25% of efficiency could be squeezed out of traditional lithium-ion batteries, which power the EVs of today.

But Hintennach was more optimistic about the potential of organic batteries in the long term over solid-state batteries.

“It’s a very promising technology. I’ve already seen it working in laboratories, where the results look really good, but we don’t see that it’s close to being used in production technology for now. It’s around 15-20 years away,” Hintennach told Autocar.

This battery technology was previewed recently in the Mercedes-Benz Vision AVTR concept, which showcased a number of technologies that the cars of the distant future could use.

Early tests show that organic batteries could be recharged quickly, making them appealing for use in cars, and that they have a high energy density. What’s more, this type of battery technology could permit the batteries to be recycled through composting, compared to the labor intensive and hazardous process of disposing of lithium-ion batteries.

Mercedes is currently looking at a number of battery technologies, not just solid-state and graphene, even though solid-state seems to be next on the horizon and on the production line, expected in commercial form by the second half of the decade. The automaker is also exploring lithium-sulphur and lithium-oxygen batteries, in addition to lithium-metal anodes, Autocar notes.

While graphene-based battery tech is still 15 to 20 years away, as Hintennach points out, the race at the moment is to scale up solid-state batteries for auto production. Multiple automakers and battery suppliers are moving in parallel to offer the first solid-state battery designs in the next few years, with one of the biggest hurdles aside from charging times being the factor of unit build cost.

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