The FiveVB project developed a new cell technology based on innovative materials such as high capacity anodes,
high voltage cathodes and stable, safe and environmentally friendly electrolytes. Since main European industry
partners representing the value chain from materials supplier to car manufacturer are involved, this program supports
and enables the development of a strong and competitive European battery industry. The multidisciplinary
project team assures not only early technology integration between materials, cells, batteries and application
requirements, but also a subsequent industrialization of the developed technology. With an integrated trans-disciplinary
cell development approach an early feedback loop from battery and vehicle level to material
suppliers and a feed-forward of relevant information to industrial scale cell production is established. Through an iterative and
holistic approach two generations of cell chemistries (anode, cathode, binder and electrolyte) are evaluated and
optimized to improve electrochemical performance of active materials and related new cell technology in terms of
energy density, lifetime, safety and costs. Furthermore, an early development and validation of test
procedures for the reduction of development time from material to cell is established. Among
other objectives, in particular the lifetime and aging aspects are addressed in the framework of FiveVB, but also input for
future European and International standardization are provided.
One major result of FiveVB is a hard case prismatic cell in PHEV1 format, developed according to automotive requirements and produced on a
representative prototype facility. The respective scale-up of anode, cathode, and electrolyte is performed successfully.
Due to constraints during this scale-up a non-prelithiated anode material is included in the PHEV1 cell.
During the manufacturing process, the impact of swelling (variation of cell thickness upon charging / discharging) turns out to be one of the
main driving factors that need to be understood for future advanced Li-ion cell manufacturing. For increasing the knowledge and for
enhancing future development efforts, via the round table approach a set of methodologies (both experimental and on simulation basis) is established.
Due to these issues during manufacturing, not the full test plan as anticipated in the original workplan could be covered.
These gaps were successfully filled with test results on pouch cell level on one hand and simulation methodology support on the other hand.
The cycle life (tested on pouch cell level) of the new cell technology is limited and given the current maturity below the target of 2000 cycles; however there is no
fundamental technological obstacle for increasing this cycle life further via subsequent development steps.
A validation against pre-defined requirements clearly demonstrate that an increase (significantly) beyond 20% energy density and - mainly based on that energy density increase -
a cost reduction of 20% is feasible.
