Alcoa, Phinergy partner to develop electric vehicle batteries

On 5th Feb, Alcoa Inc. has entered into a joint venture with Phinergy to manufacture electric vehicle batteries that run on aluminum and air.

Alcoa made this announcement public during the Advanced Automotive Battery Conference in Atlanta. According to Alcoa, both the companies will work together in manufacturing new materials, developing new processes and components to launch the aluminum-air battery commercially. Alcoa expects that the new technology can increase electric vehicle mileage range by approximate1,000 miles.

Alcoa Technical Center in New Kensington will house the technical team who will be working on this project.

According to Raymond Kilmer, Alcoa's executive vice president and chief technology officer “Alcoa’s extensive technical materials expertise, along with our deep roots in bringing new products to market in the automotive industry, were of great interest to Phinergy as its revolutionary aluminum-air battery moves from research to commercialization.”

“Automotive manufacturers are looking for technologies that enable zero-emission cars to travel the same kinds of distances as gasoline-powered cars. The aluminum-air range extender has the potential to meet that challenge,” he added.

Highlighting the new technology, Phinergy spokespersons said that aluminum-air battery would use air and water to release energy stored in aluminum. According to them, the technology would help bringing out electric vehicles which will hold travel distances, prices and life-cycle costs that would be comparable to fossil-fuel cars.

Phinergy added that the battery technology can be utilized for stationary energy applications, like commercial emergency generators, general purposes generators, and a number of defense applications such as mobile housing and unmanned automobiles other than its use in electric vehicles. Alcoa said it will collaborate with Phinergy on developing this aluminum-air battery technology for these other applications also.