Bracing for EV shift, NGK Spark Plug ignites all solid-state battery quest
22/12/2017 06:00
* NGK Spark Plug joins other suppliers in developing EV
parts
* Developing oxide-based solid electrolyte for EV batteries
* Lighter, powerful, cheaper batteries needed to expand EV
use
By Naomi Tajitsu
NAGOYA, Japan, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Facing the eventual demise
of gasoline engines, the world's biggest maker of spark plugs is
turning its focus to a component it believes will be just as
vital in the coming era of electric vehicles - next-generation
all solid state batteries.
Japan's NGK Spark Plug Co 5334.T has for years leveraged
its expertise in ceramics technology used in spark plugs to
expand into sensors, semiconductors and other products mainly
for automobiles.
Now, it sees a future in all solid-state batteries, which
experts believe will be safer and more powerful than the
lithium-ion batteries currently used in battery electric
vehicles (EVs).
After dominating transport for 150 years, the internal
combustion engine is facing the end of the road in the coming
decades as tightening global emissions regulations force
automakers to develop more electric cars.
"We realised that it was inevitable that the industry would
at some point shift from the internal combustion engine to
battery EVs, and that ultimately this could make our spark plug
and oxygen sensor businesses obsolete," Takio Kojima, senior
general manager of engineering and R&D at NGK Spark Plug told
Reuters in an interview.
"Our expertise is in advanced ceramics, and so we have
decided to pursue all solid-state batteries."
Established in 1936 and based in Japan's automaking
heartland of Nagoya, NGK Spark Plug's realisation that its main
business faced obsolescence came around 2010, Kojima said.
That was the year Nissan Motor Co 7201.T rolled out the
Leaf, the first mass-production all battery EV, and just after
Tesla Inc TSLA.O came out with the Roadster, its first
production car.
Other global parts suppliers are also scrambling to overhaul
their product portfolios.
In Japan, Denso Corp 6902.T has teamed up with Toyota
Motor Corp 7203.T and Mazda Motor Corp 7261.T to develop
battery EVs while transmission maker Aisin Seiki Co 7259.T is
developing hybrid transmission systems and EV-specific,
four-wheel-drive units.
In the United States, powertrain products maker Borg Warner
has expanded into hybrid and electric car parts, including
transmissions and drive modules for electric cars.
Industry experts anticipate plug-in hybrid petrol-electric
vehicles and all-battery EVs will account for as much as 26
percent of global car sales by 2030, versus just over 1 percent
last year, data from the International Energy Agency shows.
GOING BIG
The rise in EV use will require a steep increase in
manufacturing capacity for longer-life batteries which are more
powerful, lighter and can charge quicker than conventional
lithium-ion batteries.
NGK Spark Plug joins Toyota and other companies developing
all solid-state car batteries, which offer more capacity and
better safety than conventional lithium-ion batteries by
replacing their liquid or gel-like electrolyte with a solid,
conductive material.
Toyota is developing batteries with sulfide-based solid
electrolytes, which offer high conductivity and are relatively
flexible but can release toxic hydrogen sulfide when exposed to
moisture.
NGK is betting on a different technology with an oxide-based
chemistry using ceramics which is highly stable at extreme
temperatures, but has less conductivity. In addition, brittle
ceramics can be difficult to process.
Japan's TDK Corp 6762.T has developed small, ceramic, all
solid-state batteries for use mainly in wearable devices like
personal fitness monitors, while Murata Manufacturing Co
6981.T is developing similar products.
But NGK Spark Plug has bigger plans, developing a larger
format necessary for cars.
"It's relatively easy to work in smaller sizes, but when you
get to larger sizes it gets very difficult to assemble
each layer because it's difficult to make each layer the same
thickness," said Hideaki Hikosaka, a member of NGK Spark Plug's
solid state battery R&D team.
The company has spent the past five years developing a
solid, oxide-based electrolyte which incorporates an additional
material to make it resemble a sulfide-based one.
This makes the electrolyte easier to process into
larger, thin layers which are compressed, making them easier to
stack with anodes and cathodes.
"It's because of the addition of that material that we're
able to process layers using compression (rather than sintering)
to make a bigger, oxide-based battery cell. At the same time, it
doesn't release any gases like sulfides do," Hikosaka said.
As a result, the company has developed a 10 cm by 10 cm
battery pouch cell, much bigger than 4.5 mm by 3.2 mm cells
developed by TDK.
NGK Spark Plug declined to comment on the material used in
its oxide compound and the capabilities of its battery.
Hikosaka said his team was working to raise the battery's
energy density to enable it to match the performance of lithium
ion batteries by around 2020, and to develop more powerful,
lighter and competitively priced batteries "in the 2020s".
Battery experts believe producing affordable, all
solid-state batteries in the 2020s, a target also shared by
Toyota, is ambitious given the challenges of achieving a fine
balance between numerous performance characteristics.
Once they do come to market, some experts believe
competition between batteries based on oxides, sulfides, and
other chemistries would likely heat up, as producers vie to
deliver batteries with diverse specifications.
"If these chemistries can compete and win against
lithium-ion and we see a shift to all solid-state, we might see
a diversification in the materials used in them, as in
lithium-ion batteries," said Venkat Srinivasan, director of the
Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science in
Illinois.
"Some automakers and battery makers might be more interested
in conductivity than oxidative stability, for example ...
Batteries are all about compromise. You're not going to hit
every metric."
(Reporting by Naomi Tajitsu and Maki Shiraki; Editing by
Lincoln Feast)
((naomi.tajitsu@thomsonreuters.com; +81364411078; Reuters
Messaging: naomi.tajitsu.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))
Keywords: NGK SPARK PLUG BATTERIES/