High-durability hybrid batteries
Longer life of batteries thanks to innovative energy reservoirs for light-duty cars
Project title
High-durability hybrid batteries for light-duty electric cars
Name of Beneficiary/Beneficiaries
- Fund: EnerFund
- Entity: Breeze Energies Sp. z o.o.
Name of programme
SMART GROWTH OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME
Competition
BRIdge Alfa
Project value
PLN 1,000,000.00 – budget
Funding value
PLN 800,000.00 – NCBR
PLN 200,000.00 – FUND
Project delivery period
1 January 2019 – 31 March 2020
Meet our team
View the results of our work
What problem is addressed by the project?
Durable and light batteries are expensive; the cheaper ones require frequent charging, and they have a short lifetime. We have found a solution to this dilemma which gives sleepless nights to so many people!
Smaller vehicles rarely have lithium-ion batteries, mainly because of the price – these small cars are expected to be cheap. Unfortunately, the classic lithium-ion battery is four times more expensive than the lead-acid battery. This simple fact was the starting point for our project.
Various solutions exist for storing electricity, some are more and some are less advanced; there are complex ones and there are simple ones. We chose the solution we believe makes most sense for a regular user: to extend the lifetime of cheaper acid batteries (which were cheaper “at the expense” of a shorter lifetime).
We specialise in and focus on lead-acid battery vehicles. These primarily include small devices, such as forklifts, small electric cars for driving around resorts and golf courses, hotel buses – the so-called low-powered or low-speed vehicles. A small company that has just entered the market would find it difficult to operate in the segment of passenger cars – the restrictions connected with the safety of “normal cars” are very stringent, and activities in this field would require millions in expenditures. That is why we are starting slow, but we have a plan to gradually climb the ladder until we reach the mainstream.
The sky is the limit has been our guiding principle. One idea can give rise to several new concepts. Without doubt, we have tested our technology inside-out. The batteries equipped with additional energy reservoirs that we have designed perform excellently: they charge faster and have a much longer lifetime. They thus need to be replaced much less frequently, all in all providing a very cost-effective solution. These features make our product attractive on the market. Technological projects require time to achieve adequate profitability. For now, we have implemented and prepared our micro-vehicles for sale, but the coronavirus pandemic has slowed down our efforts to enter the market.
Who uses the project results?
Parents of teenagers have been our ever-growing customer group, as low-speed vehicles can be driven be people as young as 14, and these small electric cars are safer than scooters.
While working on our products, we also found out that the demand for more advanced lead-acid batteries was not only on the small-vehicle market, but also in stationary energy storage solutions, such as photovoltaic systems and wind turbines – this is true essentially for all areas in which batter lifetime and cost are a factor. Actually, customers themselves have started asking questions about such solutions. Our experience with car batteries will thus help to deliver stationary energy storage projects. What I am talking about is at least a nationwide innovation. Our market here is very receptive. Vehicles similar to ours are already present in German, Spain and Italy, but we would be the first business to market them in Poland. And as far as hybrid batteries for vehicles are concerned, we are talking about a European-wide innovation.
Our market is geared towards eco-friendly, relatively cheap and convenient solutions. We are confident that our project feeds into the changing automotive landscape.
What was the greatest challenge during project implementation?
From the technological perspective, combining two different types of batteries without a material price increase was quite a challenge. Although it would seem an option to use a solution with a fully-controllable active power converter, coupled with complex optimisation algorithms, we had to bear in mind that light electric cars are seen by customers as a reasonable purchase only when they are cheap, their cost being partly covered from savings generated through no need to buy petrol. It was thus necessary to design much simpler solutions that would give outcomes similar to those of advanced energy management systems.
From the business perspective, the biggest challenge was (and still is) to convince people that people as young as 14 are responsible enough to drive a car and be urban traffic participants.
Our advice for other applicants
You need to have adequate research staff to promote a link between science and business. There need to be enough scientists to allow some of them to split time between theoretical research and research that concerns innovations with commercial potential.
That's how we see NCBR's role – as an institution facilitating the practical application of research efforts and encouraging business to tap available scientific resources. We believe establishing a viable model of such a link to be one of the key prerequisites for successful funding applications. And this should be coupled with determination and patience, as well as with a serious approach to feedback from experts assessing projects – in our case most expert recommendations proved to be apt and helpful.