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Li-ion is the most common battery type in modern passenger electric vehicles and attempts to scale up this technology for usage in heavy duty vehicles , such as lorries , trains and large construction machinery are well underway . However , in these new use cases , limitations have been identified .
Any time a vehicle is having to charge , it is simultaneously losing money by not being in operation and costing money through energy consumption . While li-ion batteries can charge faster than lead-acid cells , it can still take up to two hours to fully charge a li-ion forklift battery . When this technology is scaled up for use on a heavy-duty vehicle , vehicle mass or volume limits are reached and a reduction in vehicle efficiency is observed . If the limits of the vehicle are not a problem , then typically the size of the battery requires prohibitively expensive charging infrastructure .
While lead-acid batteries are seen as the battery of choice for parts of the industry , their size and weight , partnered with their relatively low cycle life make them less likely to feature in future industrial vehicle electrification . The cost of li-ion batteries has also dropped which is attracting more interest in using this technology , but not all li-ion batteries are created the same . By exploring the different components of the batteries themselves , marked improvements can be made in terms of speed of charging , lifecycle , safety , and in the long term – cost .
Li-ion batteries are made up of four main parts : the cathode , anode , separator , and electrolyte . The anode is what receives and stores electrodes during battery charging , and it has an important role to play in cell safety , energy density and cycle life . When it comes to improving the charge rate and thus , the productivity of battery electric equipment , the anode is arguably the component with the most potential to unlock improvements for vehicles across the industry .
The li-ion batteries used in most vehicles in the industry are equipped with graphitebased anode materials . These materials offer high energy densities and can safely and repeatedly charge to around 80 percent capacity in 20-to-60 minutes . A vehicle having to spend up to an hour in down time is not well suited to the needs of a 24 / 7 industry and ultimately means that more vehicles need to be added to fleets to maintain operational output . Furthermore , when operated at a high rate in extreme low or high temperature environments , graphite anode batteries come with safety and longevity concerns .
An alternative material is lithium titanate oxides , commonly referred to as LTO . Lithium titanate batteries can easily charge to 80 percent in less than ten minutes and offer high power across a cycle-life of over 10,000 cycles . Whilst their upfront price is higher than a graphite-based li-ion battery , the longer cycle life means they have a lower total cost of ownership . The shortcomings of li-ion cells using LTO anodes center around their low energy density , especially volumetrically . This means that you will likely run out of space before you can fit the required capacity of batteries to operate as desired . Whilst this low energy density can be sometimes offset by fast charging , it makes LTO an unviable option for the full range of vehicles used across the
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