eCaiman

The project:

The success of electric vehicles in the mass market depends on the development of high-energy batteries at a competitive price.

The objective of eCAIMAN is to bring European expertise together to develop an automotive Li-Ion battery cell that can be produced in Europe. A more powerful battery will be developed by modifying and improving individual components and technologies to result in a significant overall improvement of the cell. Key innovations include a 5V high-voltage spinel cathode, a high-capacity composite anode, and a stable high-voltage electrolyte. Their cumulative effect should improve total cell capacity by at least 20%. The project will also investigate the integration of battery modules in light, passenger, and heavy duty vehicles.

eCAIMAN scale-up is designed with existing European production technologies and inexpensive materials mined in Europe, thereby reducing the final battery price. The project aims to develop a truly European high-performance battery ready for implementation in the global market.

Partnership:

To achieve the project goals, partners combining the necessary key experience, expertise, and know-how are joining efforts in the eCAIMAN consortium; this includes renowned research institutes (AIT as project coordinator, CIDETEC, CEA, CERTH and RISE), a university (Politecnico di Torino) and a strong industrial presence of material and chemical suppliers, SME battery producers, and OEMs as end users (ARKEMA, IMERYS, LITHOPS, CRF, PIAGGIO, VOLVO).

In this way, the project musters the necessary critical mass of highly relevant resources from a set of complementary partners distributed across Europe, covering research, development, testing and engineering. Since the partners are hands-on players in the field, it can be expected that eCAIMAN’s TRL6 results will be speedily industrialized.

Our role:

CIDETEC is in charge of several key technical tasks, including activities all through the value chain from the electrode manufacturing, to module design and engineering:

– Development of anodic and cathodic electrode formulations from the new materials developed within the project and full cell harmonization.

– Module design and prototyping.

– Electro-thermal modelling and cell testing and characterization.