South Korea announces development of new electric vehicle battery: more compact and safer

On June 17, a South Korean research institute announced the development of a technology that makes solid-state batteries extremely compact and safe for use in next-generation electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

According to Yonhap News Agency, on June 17, a South Korean research institute announced the development of a technology that makes solid-state batteries extremely compact and safe for use in next-generation electric vehicles and energy storage systems.

Image from Yonhap News Agency website

According to the news released by the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology (KITECH), the all-solid-state battery it developed replaces the liquid electrolyte between the positive and negative electrodes of traditional lithium-ion batteries with solid conductive materials. After testing, the solid electrolyte lithium lanthanum zirconium oxygen garnet electrolyte has the characteristics of high heat resistance and durability, and the bipolar structure allows the battery pack made of it to be connected in series.

“An overcharged battery will split in two without exploding or catching fire, and the new two-stage structure allows the power pack to be compressed to one-third of the space required for traditional batteries with the same output capacity as traditional batteries,” KITECH said, which could give electric vehicles twice the range without making the body larger.

Kim Ho-Sung, a senior researcher at KITECH who led the development of the technology, said the new solid-state battery technology could open up new growth opportunities as clean energy becomes more widely used and demand for safer energy storage systems and longer driving range for electric vehicles continues to increase.

Fuji Keizai Group, a leading energy trend research firm, predicts that the global solid-state battery market will reach 28 trillion won (about 23.6 billion U.S. dollars) by 2035 as countries around the world turn to cleaner energy.