Wider acceptance of EVs may have stalled, but addressing concerns like range and charging will provide the flexibility needed to compete with combustion engines.
Experts
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Professor of Marine Engineering
Stalled sales and political uncertainties have clouded the present for electric vehicle (EV) adoption, but a two-day gathering at the University of Michigan’s Electric Vehicle Center showed the challenges are solvable with ambitious research and perseverance.
Nearly 300 representatives from the auto industry, academia and government gathered April 1 and 2 at U-M to discuss the state of EVs. The group approached the subject from a variety of angles, but consensus wasn’t hard to come by—the period of unbridled enthusiasm and bold predictions for battery-powered vehicles has come to an end. However, the pain points that emerged as more EVs took to the roads provide researchers with guidance about which problems to prioritize.
“As of last week, battery electric vehicles account for 9.6% of U.S. retail vehicle sales,” said Brent Gruber, executive director of EV practice at JD Power. “We still expect EVs to constitute about one in four vehicle purchases in the year 2030. And that takes into account a lot of the speculation we’ve heard—the possible reduction of the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, as well as reductions from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program.
“So it’s really critical to the industry to be talking about these things and addressing these issues now while we’re at about 10 percent rather than when we’re at 25-plus-percent.”
Much of the work needed to get to those 2030 goals lies in continued research and development to make EVs more attractive to consumers, such as faster charging and increased range. Symposium experts also spoke of the need for better public education and workforce development.
Launched two years ago, the EV Center is home to research projects designed to tackle some of the biggest issues limiting EV adoption. Several of those were part of an initial $23 million slate of efforts started last year. Two of those were highlighted on Wednesday:
“We’re doing a fairly comprehensive analysis of all the potential approaches to resolve this issue—looking at it from the electric motor side, the power electronic side and the control side as well,” said Heath Hofmann, a U-M professor of electrical engineering and computer science, as well as marine engineering.
“We use what is called a micro electric array, a tool you normally see in neurosciences,” said Yiyang Li, a U-M assistant professor of materials science and engineering. “We can put individual particles onto these micro fabricated electrodes.”
Researchers have seen how lithium from the battery’s electrolyte can penetrate individual particles through cracks. Those cracks allow for faster charge and discharge rates.
“What we’ve found is that eliminating cracks will probably make a battery’s life cycle better,” Li said, “but preclude the battery from fast charge or discharge.”
Beyond answering fundamental questions, the EV Center aims to help ideas move from the lab to the marketplace. During the symposium’s second day, director Alan Taub announced $1 million in new seeding funds for EV technology concepts that show academic promise but need more research to demonstrate their feasibility, available to scientists and engineers on all three U-M campuses.
“One thing universities do very well is leading startups,” he said. “It’s time to take a look at technologies that are really at the infant stage—I’m talking about readiness level zero to one.”
Proposals will be considered in eight areas: batteries, electric machines and drives, thermal management, vehicle/component end-of-life, electric infrastructure and charging equipment, data collection, modelling and analysis, raw materials and supply chain, and lightweighting.
Taub said there will be four to six awards made, with a $150,000 max per project.
The seeding program parallels efforts already underway at U-M through the Michigan Translational Research and Commercialization (MTRAC) program—an effort supporting faculty-led technology commercialization efforts at public universities in the state.
“This is what has to happen, the research and development around these batteries, so they can be more affordable, they can be lighter, more energy dense,” said speaker Terry Woychowski, president of Caresoft Global. “All of these things have to happen.”
