Range anxiety when driving your electric car? HIDDEN project

This is Nicole.

She is acutely aware that transport is the biggest source of carbon emissions in Europe, so she decided to buy an electric car.

Up until now, it has proven very convenient, but today she is driving for the first time to a friend’s house who lives up north, and is realising she might not make it to the next electric charger.

Her range anxiety sets in as she is afraid of being stranded.

The HIDDEN project aims at reducing range anxiety by developing Li-metal batteries with 50% higher energy density that is equipped with a self-healing mechanism that also extends the lifetime of the battery by 50%.
The materials and their processes for functional battery layers are targeted to be scalable and industry compatible. To achieve these goals, HIDDEN develops novel self-healing thermotropic liquid crystalline electrolytes and piezoelectric separator technologies to prevent dendrite growth.

The consortium applies multiscale modelling for electrolyte design to speed up the development of new materials.

Dendrite growth is monitored with algorithms, and the self-healing mechanism is triggered at an appropriate time by increasing the cell temperature.

The HIDDEN project will increase the quality, reliability and lifetime of Li-metal batteries, paving the way for electrification of transportation.
With this technology, Nicole could easily have a stress-free drive to the next electric charger.

Quite a game changer!