Engineers Develop Electric Car Battery That Can Heat Itself During Winter (popularmechanics.com)

Engineers at Penn State have created a battery that can self-heat, allowing for rapid charging regardless of the outside cold. The battery can reportedly provide a 15-minute rapid charge at all temperatures, even when the cold is as low as minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Popular Mechanics reports: Batteries have both positive and negative terminals. The scientists placed thin nickel foil with one end attached to the negative terminal and the other end creating a third terminal. When a temperature sensor attached to a battery detects that the battery is below room temperature, it then sends electrons flowing through the nickel foil. This heats the battery up until it's above room temperature again. When the sensor detects that the battery is above room temperature, that's the sign that charging that can begin again. Electric current flows into the battery, rapidly charging in a more efficient state. After 4,500 cycles of testing, the new battery only showed a 20 percent capacity loss, which could provide approximately 280,000 miles of driving and a lifetime of 12.5 years. This is compared to a conventional battery that "showed a 20 percent capacity loss after only 50 charges," reports Popular Mechanics. Penn State released a press statement with more details.

Comments

so.. they 'invented' this?

[Anonymous Coward]

essentially a resistance heater in an electricity storage device.. for when the natural heat generated from charging isn't 'enough' to keep a suitable temperature?

wow. it took 'til 2018 to come up with that?

next you're gonna tell me they got a cooler for batteries for use in hot climates.....

Sure it's useful in Florida

[Ungrounded Lightning]

I take issue with your "Not useful in Florida" title.

Sure, in Florida (at normal temperatures) the battery/controller would go straight to charging (and the normal cooling fans or whatever would kick in once it got hot enough). So it would work just fine, though it wouldn't use the "heat me up first" feature.

Until some winter when you drive up to Michigan, Quebeck, Alaska, or the nearest ski mountain or place where your kids can make snowballs, park it overnight at a motel or resort (because all the charging stations are full), then charge it in the morning while you eat breakfast. Oops! THEN you'll want the feature to be installed.

(It's really low weight, so hauling around a extra power transistor and some nickel foil heating elements doesn't cut into your mileage.)

So even if you don't actually use it in Florida it's still useful there - to the dealer selling you the car. B-)

Here's a free analog alternative

[technosaurus]

Use thermal expansion coefficient to allow terminals to touch when cold (when it heats up sufficiently the terminals will disconnect) . In case this isn't obvious I am placing it in the public domain.