Honda is working hard on solid-state batteries for its future electric cars. The Japanese firm thus thinks it can reduce the weight of its vehicles.
During the presentation of the Honda e: Ny1, its electric SUV, the brand suffered criticism. By choosing a battery capacity of 61.9 kWh for this clone of the HR-V, Honda has somewhat sacrificed the autonomy of its model, with just over 400 km in the WLTP cycle.
But when its executives broach the subject of future batteries, we understand this choice. The Japanese manufacturer indeed thinks that we should not focus on an ever higher capacity.
“The conventional reasoning is: if people are concerned about vehicle range, the answer is to put more battery”explains Jay Joseph, Honda’s vice president of sustainability and business. “And of course that sends you into a spiral of cost, weight and dimensional return. At some point, more battery is useless. »
And to confirm that Honda is relying on solid battery technologies to progress. The manufacturer refuses the idea of increasing the weight of the batteries and therefore sacrificing efficiency.
“Fundamentally, the answer to range anxiety isn’t more battery. On the other hand, we need better access to charging. It is not necessarily necessary to have a range of 900 km if access to charging is easier. »
“And the technology will continue to improve. We have already announced that we are at the stage of validating the solid battery concept. This could reduce weight and increase vehicle range. »
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Twice the energy density
Honda’s executive vice-president responsible for the electrical part, Shinji Aoyama, confirms the benefits of solid-state batteries. He recalls in particular that the solid battery is much more efficient.
Aoyama thus describes the virtuous consequences of solid batteries. “Simply, the energy density would be doubled. So same energy, same base volume, but sort of half the weight”he notes.
Honda admits that it will have to go through a stage where it will increase the capacity of the batteries. This will happen during the debut of solid batteries, before a later rollback.
“Once we introduce solid state, we may be able to double the amount of power in the same car. The weight will therefore remain the same. But once we develop something new, we will use smaller battery pack for this product. »
