Battery materials specialist Nano One Materials Corp (NASDAQ: NNOMF) has said that there is growing interest in its patented battery technology from the global automotive sector. The Armchair Trader first covered Nano One last month.
Nano One is now reporting a massive interest in its technology from the automotive industry as many car manufacturers are looking seriously at transitioning to electric vehicles.
Technology that fuels the transition to electric cars
Our case at The Armchair Trader has always been that the motor industry is going to have to look more seriously at this sort of technology to make electric cars more viable.
Nano One offers a patented nanocrystal technology that improves the durability of lithium battery cathode materials. In August last year the firm, which is based in Canada, outlined its breakthrough improvements in lithium nickel manganese cobalt cathodes, adding to their durability and safety.
Such innovation is considered essential by next generation electric car manufacturers like Tesla, but also more traditional vehicle manufacturers (Nano One already has a partnership with Volkswagen, for example). By protecting individual particles, Nano One is engineering new battery materials which can enhance the range and energy efficiency of electric vehicles, including larger vehicles used for public transport.
Nano One reports that there is increased interest from the auto industry in what are called single crystal cathodes. These are difficult and expensive for car manufacturers to make on a consistent basis, but the benefits for the industry are thought to be huge. Nano One can make them easily and effectively, and can even reduce the additional step required of coating them using instead a ‘one pot process‘.
This amounts to a cheaper and more efficient way for large car makers to get their hands on single crystal cathodes.
“Tesla’s research provides evidence that batteries made with single crystal cathodes can last an order of magnitude longer than conventional composite cathode structures in battery cycle testing,” says Nano One CEO, Dan Blondal. “These results help to substantiate Nano One’s technology advantage and have spawned a great deal of interest in our coated nanocrystal innovation which produces our patented single crystal cathode powders. This has generated a measurable increase in strategic level discussions and forms the basis of current relationships with several automotive players and chemical companies.”
Ultimately, Nano One’s technology is poised to provide car manufacturers with the ability to build batteries which can last longer and are able to extend the range of vehicles. This has major implications for the cost-effectiveness of electric motor vehicles.
The next 10 years is now being regularly described as the Battery Decade. It is all very well talking about clean energy and how we are going to see all those gas guzzlers taken off the road in the new few years, but energy storage is going to be a critical factor too.
The automotive industry is increasingly committed to an electric vehicle transition, but to do this they will need technology like nanocrystal innovation that can provide the required durability, stability and energy density.
For a full interview with Dan Blondal, CEO of Nano One, make sure you check out The Armchair Trader’s podcast or find it on Spotify or iTunes.
