Grant awarded to research high performance and long-life fast charging batteries for electric vehicles

Electric vehicle batteries need fast charging times and long lifetimes - achieving the combination of the two is an essential target in battery research. Temprano, who is a researcher here in the Grey Group, is studying batteries for electric vehicles that can withstand extreme conditions without degrading. Resilient batteries also need replacing less often which makes them more sustainable.

Temprano will be working with Cambridge-based company Nyobolt, a start-up founded by the department’s Professor Dame Clare Grey and Dr Sai Shivareddy. Nyobolt is bringing to market ultra-fast charging battery technologies for multiple applications, including automotive. Temprano will be using the grant to develop novel testing systems to accelerate the development of battery components that are resilient to extreme usage conditions with extended battery life.

“This project includes battery pack prototyping which will incorporate improvements found in the lab for testing in an electric vehicle battery” comments Temprano.

As a postdoctoral researcher in the Grey group, Temprano developed several operando gas analysis techniques to probe electrochemical devices, and used this technique to study the mechanisms of various types of batteries (lithium-ion, lithium-air, redox-flow, etc.).

The project Temprano will be working on, called EXtrAPower (Enabling Xtreme Automotive Power), is a collaboration led by Nyobolt and funded by Round 5 of the Faraday Battery Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). “On the personal side, this is my first grant as PI, so quite important for many reasons,” he says.

The research project is an industrial collaboration with Nyobolt, WAE Technologies Ltd and Coventry University.