Whether in motorsport or mainstream automotive, battery technology remains the most vexing, and expensive, stumbling block on the path towards range and price parity with ICE vehicles. While an electric motor, power electronics and associated transmission can easily out gun ICE in terms of power-to-weight ratio, even without having to resort to the exotic end of the market, batteries are – to put it bluntly – fat and heavy. However, the situation is already very much advanced from where it was a decade ago, and marching forward at a pace.
Think back to 2014, when Formula E needed two stage races, with drivers swapping cars, to the situation that will (if all of the parts work as advertised) see cars run full races, at a higher power output, using a significantly smaller (in both size and capacity) battery when Gen 3 arrives next year. Admittedly, this is not solely thanks to the battery. Increases in overall vehicle efficiency, coupled with 150kW of front axle regeneration are vital, but the fact remains the Gen 3 battery is far more energy dense and efficient than those in the series’ Gen 1 cars.
This situation applies across racing, from full EVs such as Extreme E and ETCR to the hybrids running in the WRC and WEC, all of which have benefitted from the increase in power density of batteries, coupled with better packaging and improved levels of efficiency.
Systems operation
As was addressed in V32N2, lithium-ion-based battery chemistries remain the standard for high performance applications, and all operate on the same basis. The focus of this article is battery control, but it
