In the last year, a number of auto companies have announced huge investments into the development of electric vehicles, with some committing to transforming their entire fleets over to clean energy. In the past, the biggest hurdle consumers and businesses had to overcome when switching to electric power was the question of battery life. Drivers were worried, and understandably so, about whether their car’s battery would be powerful enough to get them where they needed to go, hassle-free. The answer is yes, and it’s thanks to some interesting software that a cleaner future is possible.
“By unleashing what we call depth of discharge and top of charge on a battery just with software, we can add five to 10% range. And so that may not sound a lot, but if you have a car that’s 300 miles, now it’s 330 miles that trip to the beach is no problem.”
Anil Paryani is an EV industry veteran and pioneer who possesses more than 30 patents and currently he serves as the CEO of Automotive Power, where he is committed to getting the most out of your electric vehicle. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Anil explains what really controls an EV battery’s capacity and overall performance, and he reveals why you might not need that fast charging station afterall.
Main Takeaways
- Can I Get Some Charge?: In order for electric vehicles to become widely adopted, consumers need to feel confident that they can get to their desired destination. Fast-charging stations already exist, but there is still a mental hurdle consumers have to clear in order to feel secure in their ability to get from point A to point B. As such, more charging stations and options are still needed in more locations to give drivers the sense of security they require.
- Running to the Edge: Preventing lithium platinum plating is what will keep your car running efficiently for as long as possible. Lithium plating is what happens when the battery is pushed past its maximum abilities. In order to prevent this from happening, the software that the car runs on must be optimized to keep the battery running at the edge.
- Cool Car, Man: One of the main obstacles EVs face is the stigma that electric cars are not fun to drive. Initially, when manufacturers designed EVs, they were small and seen as practical, everyday cars for consumers. Now, the tides are changing as OEMs, such as Tesla, Ford and Audi, are now bringing EVs to everyday, classically-cool, performance-based models such as the Mustang.
For a more in-depth look at this episode, check out the article below.
Article
In the last year, a number of big name auto companies have announced huge investments into the development of electric vehicles, with some committing to transforming their entire fleets over to clean energy. In the past, the biggest hurdle consumers and businesses had to overcome when switching to electric power was the question of battery life. Drivers were worried, and understandably so, aboud whether their car’s battery would be powerful enough to get them where they needed to go, hassle-free. The answer is yes, and it’s thanks to some interesting software that a cleaner future is possible.
“By unleashing what we call depth of discharge and top of charge on a battery just with software, we can add five to 10% range. And so that may not sound a lot, but if you have a car that’s 300 miles, now it’s 330 miles that trip to the beach is no problem.”
Anil Paryani is an EV industry veteran and pioneer who possesses more than 30 patents and currently he serves as the CEO of Automotive Power, where he is committed to getting the most out of your electric vehicle while also trying to bring Tesla-like technology to the sectors of the world that need it most. On this episode of IT Visionaries, Anil candidly explains what really controls an EV battery’s length of charge and overall performance, and he reveals why you might not need that fast charging station afterall.
After a long run working with manufacturing giants such as Honda and Tesla helping to pioneer the systems that control battery range, charge time and overall performance, Paryani launched AMP in 2017 with one goal: to help make electric vehicle technology more accessible around the world.
“What I wanted to do with AMP was to bring Tesla-like technology to where it’s needed the most,” Paryani said. “We have customer bases in Asia and Southeast Asia, and specifically in India and Vietnam, where the pollution is really bad and where they can benefit from battery management and charging technology. There’s no reason why someone needs to drive a gas-powered, or diesel-powered rickshaw or scooter in those parts of the world. The technology for electrification is superior, and more cost effective, than what you find with internal combustion engines. So we want to make that stuff obsolete.”
To help make those two and four-stroke engines a relic of the past, AMP is operating to answer a simple question: how do we get more out of the batteries we already have? The answer, much like every piece of technology, is the software that powers the car and controls the battery plays a big role.
“What ends up happening when you fast-charge a lithium battery cell too fast, you get something called lithium plating,” he said. “So you basically degrade the battery in a much more accelerated fashion. The software needs to understand how fast I can go before I get lithium plating, and we really want to run to the edge and not go over the edge.”
Paryani likes to use an analogy relating a car battery to that of a formula one driver. When a car is cruising around a turn at 1.2Gs and all of a sudden speeds up to 1.21Gs, the car will spin out. The same can be said for batteries, which are designed to run at certain efficiency levels.
“We can measure three things externally from a battery cell,” Paryani said. “Voltage, current and temperature. Looking at those characteristics, we can then ascertain when we think the onset of lithium plating will occur.”
Battery performance is certainly one of the driving factors behind the future of electric vehicle success, but Paryani stressed that success is not simply tied to the power of the battery. It’s also related to the frequency of charging stations being implemented around the world.
“Fast charging is something that is needed to make the average consumer feel really comfortable taking this step,” Paryani said. “When people see the fast charging stations from a vehicle it’s more comfortable. The initial electric vehicle owners tend to be more affluent. They tend to be homeowners and they tend to just plug-in at home like you do your cell phone. And in that use case, a lot of them have never even gone to a fast charge station. Even though they went in saying, ‘Hey, I need a supercharger station at home to feel comfortable,’ and they’ve never had a need to use it.”
The future of charging stations, Paryani said, is not just having fast-charging stations everywhere, but also various levels of charge stations so that users can plug in anywhere they park their cars.
“[The goal is to have] level two charger at the beach [or elsewhere], and maybe you get front-row parking on the sand, you’re there for two hours and you get a charge,” he said. “You’re going to return 40 to 50 miles of range just by being plugged in at the beach. That literally solves the problem and that’s very affordable for society to do.”
To hear more about the future of EVs and how OEMs are shifting their design focus, check out the full episode of IT Visionaries!
To hear the entire discussion, tune into IT Visionaries here.
