from chemistry to pack
Nigel
BYD’s Blade Battery 2.0, introduced in March 2026, represents a significant leap over the first-generation Blade Battery 1.0 launched in 2020. While the first generation revolutionized battery safety and packaging efficiency, the second generation introduces sweeping material overhauls to dramatically improve charging speed, energy density, and cold-weather performance. However, the Blade 1.0 design improved throughout … Read more
When one cell goes into thermal runaway, whether you end up with a contained event or a pack fire depends on what its neighbours experience, thermally and electrically. This post sets out the heat paths that published test work identifies, what that work does and does not quantify, and the electrical effects, which get less … Read more
How much energy will a cell hold in 2030, or in 2035? (If you need a refresher on the two measures, see cell energy density.) Most answers to that question start from a target or a press release. This one starts from the cells themselves. We took every cell in our cell database that has … Read more
Jerry Wan’s post (right) asks whether cell design has a “golden ratio” for aspect ratio. He concludes that there isn’t a universal one, and that’s right. But the reasons are worth working through, because the best shape changes completely depending on where the tabs are and which edge the heat leaves by. A ratio that … Read more
CATL and Quibo’s Mobile Power Plant Ultra 2.0 packs up to 2,036 kWh, a converter, EV chargers and a solar inverter into a 20-foot container. What the IAA 2026 placard discloses, what it leaves out, and how it compares.
In 2019 the median 10-80% charge time for BEV road cars was 39 minutes. In 2026 that median has fallen to 22 minutes. The fastest quoted pack in our database is 6.5 minutes and that is the 3rd generation of CATL Shenxing pack. Over this timeframe there has been a steady increase in the peak … Read more
Selective Relithiation vs Pyro- and Hydrometallurgical Routes Recycling Processes and Recycling Process Engineering both mention direct recycling in passing, alongside the pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical routes. This post stays with direct recycling specifically, and with the step that makes it viable at all: relithiation, putting the lithium a degraded cathode has lost back where it belongs … Read more
The Battery Data Behind IAA Transportation 2026 IAA Transportation 2026 ran in Hannover from 15 to 20 September, and electrification was the theme running through most of the exhibitor announcements: Volvo, DAF, MAN, Scania and SANY all had electric truck news on the stand. The one battery-specific launch worth digging into in detail is CATL’s … Read more
Every solid-state battery announcement over the past year or so has come with a headline charge time: 15 minutes, 12 minutes, sometimes under 10. Feels like a limbo dance at a bar, getting lower and lower as we all get drunk on the lemonade. Lined up next to each other the claims look almost interchangeable, … Read more
“What are the benefits of a Magnesium battery pack enclosure?” arrived in my inbox with a link to the Estes Energy website. That got me looking at this particular design as a benchmark and also more generally about the use of magnesium as a structural material within the pack design. This post has been built … Read more