Porsche Taycan (Porsche)

Porsche Taycan 2019 models surprised the world when they were first released by supporting rapid charging from 0 to 100 percent in 20-30 minutes -- almost twice as fast as other electric vehicles at the time.

Behind this jaw-dropping performance was LG Energy Solution’s two breakthrough battery manufacturing technologies, which are not dissimilar to making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Now the South Korean battery giant aims to apply the two technologies not only to premium models, but also to low- and midrange ones in order to address the insufficient charging infrastructure that poses as one of the main obstacles blocking drivers from going electric.

The first technology is called double layer coating. Inside the batteries, plus and minus sides are stacked in layers, like slices of bread are stacked to make PB&J sandwiches.

Typically, a slurry of graphite and silicon coats the minus side. But LG Energy Solution instead applies two different slurries separately, like spreading peanut butter on the bottom slice of bread and jelly on the top slice.

“The double layer coating technology can paste two types of materials selectively, separately and simultaneously. This optimizes battery functions and reduces resistance inside batteries, which results in faster charging time. After applying this technology for the first time in the world in 2018, LG Energy Solution now uses it for most of its EV batteries,” a company official said.

It was LG Energy Solution that introduced the PB&J recipe for electric vehicle batteries. In 2019, the firm was the first in the industry to add silicon to the minus sides, which had previously only used graphite.

Graphite is the same black carbon material that forms the inside of pencils. For the minus sides, graphite brings stability to batteries. However, graphite has high resistance, which slows the charging process.

By adding a small amount of silicon to graphite inside minus sides, LG Energy Solution enhanced conductivity dramatically. Also, mixing silicon with graphite made batteries more powerful, as one silicon particle can absorb four lithium ions, whereas six particles of graphite can accommodate just one lithium ion.

“When silicon is added, more lithium ions come in, so batteries can suffer swelling. LG Energy Solution solved this issue by adding conductive agents called carbon nanotubes,” the company official said.

Following LG Energy Solution’s lead, Samsung SDI and SK On are reportedly using the two PB&J technologies for their batteries.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)