Reading the Supercapacitors in Volvo Cars

Weight is the enemy of efficiency. For electric cars, the heaviest component is the battery. In order to spread the weight, Volvo has developed a new design to convert the body into a battery by putting the super capacitor into the carbon fiber board. This is a good idea, provided that there is no accident.

Volvo and other European companies participated in an EU-funded project, which aims to combine nanostructured batteries and supercapacitors into a lightweight, environmentally friendly energy storage.

Supercapacitors have faster charge and discharge speeds than lithium-ion batteries used by current car manufacturers (not sure if it compares to Tesla's charging stations), but they can also be stored in smaller volumes. energy of. Depending on the application, with the same weight, you can get 10 to 100 times more energy than a conventional battery from a super capacitor. This is very attractive for car manufacturers.

Volvo and his companions then concocted a nanomaterial, a nanostructured supercapacitor, which was then sandwiched between a piece of carbon fiber and a polymeric resin plate. The supercapacitor plate replaces the combination of the hood and the torsion bar so Volvo engineers can replace the 12-volt battery that powers the car's electronics while reducing the weight by half.

Taking this concept a step further, Volvo used this super capacitor/carbon fiber board to remake a car cover, which turned it into a battery that can be recharged with a kinetic energy recovery system or a standard plug.

The body became a battery: Volvo estimates that parts such as doors, trunks, roofs, etc. can be replaced with this new material, so that overall weight can be reduced by 15%. However, it is not without risk. Although supercapacitors are considered as artifacts for energy storage, the prices of capacitors and carbon fiber materials are relatively inexpensive. However, they have brought about security problems.

"By decentralizing many of the low-voltage areas in the car, and at the same time affecting the isolation switch between the areas, the risk of damage will increase," says Per-Ivar Sellergren, an engineer at Volvo. "Lighter components means that they can absorb less impact energy, but Volvo still requires it to be able to achieve the same impact test results as other Volvo cars."

Problems with safety and component replacement costs Volvo still needs to be addressed, and it is unlikely that the product will be mass-produced in the short term.