Why are electric vehicles not popular yet?

If batteries are to change our lives again, there are three problems to be solved: electricity, energy and safety. Electric planes may become the future of the aviation industry. In theory, electric airplanes are quieter, cheaper and more environmentally friendly than traditional airplanes. If an electric plane can fly 1,000 kilometers on a single charge, it can complete nearly half of today's commercial flights and reduce global aviation carbon emissions by 15%. The same is true for electric vehicles. In fact, electric vehicles are not only environmentally friendly, but also perform better. The motor has low noise and can quickly respond to the driver's instructions. Charging a car is much cheaper than burning oil. Electric vehicles have fewer moving parts and lower maintenance costs. Why are electric vehicles not popular? Because batteries are too expensive, the upfront cost of buying an electric vehicle is higher than buying a similar gasoline-powered vehicle. Unless you have been driving, the gasoline saved will not be enough to cover your upfront costs. In short, electric vehicles are not economical enough. Batteries can't power passenger planes by weight or size. Mankind needs to make a breakthrough in battery technology before it can be truly popularized. Portable battery devices have changed our lives, but batteries are limited by the laws of physics. More than two centuries after the first battery was invented in 1799, we have been studying it, but scientists still don’t fully know what’s inside the device. We only know that if we want batteries to change our lives again, there are three problems to be solved: electricity, energy and safety. There is no universal lithium battery. Each lithium battery has two poles: a cathode and an anode. The positive electrode of most lithium batteries is made of graphite, while the negative electrode is made of a variety of materials, depending on where the battery is used. The influence of different cathode materials on battery performance can be seen from the figure below. Power challenge Many times, we mix energy and energy, but on battery, the meaning of these two words is slightly different. Power represents the rate at which energy is released. We call it power. If you want a commercial aircraft to fly 1,000 kilometers on a single charge, you need a powerful battery that releases enough energy in a short period of time, especially during takeoff. Therefore, it is not enough to store a lot of energy in the battery, and it must be released quickly. If you want to solve the power problem, you need to know more about the internal structure of some commercial batteries. We always advertise new battery technology, and it’s important because we don’t pay attention to details. The most common chemical substance in the batteries we use is lithium ion. Most experts believe that no other chemical substance can defeat lithium superparticles in 10 years or more. Lithium batteries have two electrodes (cathode and anode), a separator (a material that conducts ions instead of electrons to prevent short circuits), a separator in the middle, and an electrolyte (usually a liquid) that allows lithium ions to flow back and forth between the two electrodes. . When the battery is charged, ions flow from the cathode to the anode, and when the battery is discharged, the ions move in the opposite direction. Think of it as two breads, one with the cathode on the left and the other with the anode on the right. Let us assume that the cathode is composed of nickel, manganese, and cobalt plates (NMCS), and the anode is composed of graphite, which acts as layer after layer of carbon atoms. In the discharged state, the NMC bread is sandwiched between the lithium ion layers. When the battery is charged, lithium ions are extracted from the interlayer and forced through the liquid electrolyte. The separator ensures that only lithium ions can pass through the graphite layer. When the battery is fully charged, the cathode has no lithium ions, and the lithium ions are neatly arranged between the graphite blocks. When the battery releases energy, lithium ions flow back to the cathode until the anode is free of lithium ions. That's when we need to recharge. Essentially, the power of the battery is determined by the speed of its processing. Speeding up is not so easy. If lithium ions are extracted from the cathode too quickly, the cathode layer will be damaged. Therefore, the longer the mobile phone, laptop or electric car is used, the shorter the battery life. Every time you charge and discharge, the crumbs will become fragile. Many companies are looking for better solutions. One idea is to replace the electrode layer with something stronger. For example, the Swiss battery company Leclanche is developing a technology statement that uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) as the cathode, olive-like structure, and lithium titanate oxide (LTO) as the cathode. Some pictures and content of the articles published on this site are from Internet, if there is any infringement, please contact to delete the previous article: Detailed explanation of the working principle and characteristics of lithium iron phosphate battery