This large car company is finally going to do something about overweight electric cars

rewrite this content and keep HTML tags Due to their large battery pack, electric cars are a lot heavier than cars with a combustion engine. Stellantis is working on solutions for ‘autobesity’ and is betting on several horses. Something strange is going on in the car world. Electric cars must protect the climate, but are much heavier than their counterparts that run on petrol or diesel. This is mainly due to the heavy battery pack. For example, the 62 kWh battery pack of the Seal WORLD 470 kilos; almost a quarter of the total weight of 1941 kilos. How do you bring the weight down? Stellantis, which includes brands such as Peugeot, Opel, Fiat in Citroën has in his portfolio, has ideas about this. The British reports this Autocar. It wants to halve the weight of battery packs, so that electric cars become as heavy as cars with a combustion engine. Moreover, they become more economical and cheaper. Stellantis is targeting 2030 for its slimmed-down battery packs. Which battery will you find in your future EV? Follow it closely with our free newsletter! Alternative batteries According to Stellantis, one of the solutions is the use of lithium-sulfur batteries. The group has already invested in a technology company The sound, which is based in Silicon Valley and develops sulfur battery packs. The use of sulfur makes the battery packs 60 percent lighter, and sulfur is cheaper and more easily available than materials in lithium-ion batteries. Sodium-based battery packs are also an option for Stellantis. The advantage of sodium-ion batteries is a high energy density, fast charging would be faster than it is now. The batteries would also be less dependent on the weather. Current batteries perform even less well when it is cold. Chinese battery manufacturer CATL has already fully developed the sodium-ion battery and will soon supply it to the Chinese brand Chery. Protect the environment Stellantis wants to no longer use commonly used, polluting elements in lithium-ion batteries in the future. This includes nickel, manganese, graphite and cobalt. Extracting these materials is bad for the climate and labor intensive. New solution But the search for the battery of the future goes beyond just the chemical composition. Stellantis wants to make the on-board charger and inverter redundant by having each battery module in the battery pack convert its own electricity. The required technology is placed (tiny) in the battery pack with each module. This saves space in the car, because two cabinets disappear, and according to the inventors it also saves costs. Integrating the on-board charger and the inverter makes the battery pack more efficient, reducing the EV’s power consumption and increasing its range. The inventors also promise that their solution is more reliable and cheaper. It sounds like a win-win-win situation.