A green revolution in the automotive industry will see tens of millions of electric vehicles sold every year by the end of the decade. Whist combustion engines were optimised for the past century, batteries are only just off the starting line. However, the foundations for how they will catch up over the next 30 years can now be predicted.
The battery industry previously focussed on energy density and cost. These are both important, ensuring sufficient travel range and affordability. However, prioritising these has led the industry into a sub-system optimisation trap. The current generation of batteries are prone to overheating and often degrade unpredictably and too fast.
Gregory Offer is Professor of Electrochemical Engineering at Imperial College London, and his research spans the interface between the science of how batteries work and the engineering of how to design the best products around them. In his inaugural lecture he will describe how the best battery is one that is designed to maximise performance of the complete vehicle, not the battery on its own. In particular, he will highlight how understanding how to thermally manage batteries and how this affects their degradation is critical to their performance, cost, safety and lifetime.
