Northvolt is a Swedish battery developer and producer. The company specializes in lithium-ion products for electric vehicles. Northvolt’s program to build battery gigafactories in subarctic Sweden indicates rapid plans for further expansion. On April 25, 2023 Northvolt announced a new lithium metal battery that’s focused clearly on high performance aviation.
New Lithium Metal Battery Will Leverage Cuberg Technology.
Northvolt’s subsidiary Cuberg researches and develops new forms of all-electric transportation. It builds its ideas around battery basics, in particular lithium metal cell technology. The Northvolt press release reveals it has turned its attention towards safe, sustainable electric flight.
The following are the building blocks of this fresh outreach:
- Cuberg will supply reliable, high performance, and sustainable battery systems to aviation operators.
- Its new lithium metal battery will form the foundation for electric aviation through high energy density and low weight.
However, this appears to be far more than wishful speculation. That’s because Cuberg is already shipping what Northvolt describes as ‘next-generation 20 ah pouch cells with specific energy of 405 wh/kg’.
Simultaneous Press Releases Confirm Progress
The company released simultaneous press releases in Stockholm, Sweden, and San Leandro, California the day before. The main focus of Cuberg’s contribution will be designing, and building system solutions for the aviation industry. However, these will not be using traditional lithium-ion.
That’s because lithium metal technology holds promise for more stable lithium batteries, with high density but considerably lower operational risk. The Cuberg lithium metal model has apparently already demonstrated ‘passive propagation resistance during a thermal runaway verification test campaign’. This is a key step in certification of aviation battery systems.
This new technology could be an important foundation stone towards solving the power-weight paradigm holding back commercial, large scale aviation transport. We’ve heard the pouch cells deploy a proprietary liquid electrolyte. We wonder what that could be!
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