Tesla Acquires Ultracapacitor Manufacturer For Over $200 Million, Reaches Deal With Electrify America To Deploy Powerpacks At Over 100 Charging Stations (electrek.co)

Thelasko shares a report from Electrek: Tesla hasn't been known for making many acquisitions, but we've now learned that it has reached an agreement to acquire ultracapacitor and battery component manufacturer Maxwell based in California. The all-stock transaction worth over $200 million was announced by Maxwell this morning and we reached out to Tesla to confirm the news. [...] Tesla's acquisition of Maxwell might have little to do with ultracapacitors. The automaker might be more interested with Maxwell's dry electrode technology that they have been hyping recently. Maxwell claims that its electrode enables an energy density of over 300 Wh/kg in current demonstration cells and they see a path to over 500 Wh/kg. This would represent a significant improvement over current battery cells used by Tesla and enable longer range or lighter weight, but that's not even the most attractive benefit of Maxwell's dry electrode. They claim that it should simplify the manufacturing process and result in a "10 to 20% cost reduction versus state-of-the-art wet electrodes" while "extending battery Life up to a factor of 2." Many companies have been making similar claims about batteries. Tesla, specifically Elon and JB, have often complained that they couldn't verify those claims. If Tesla is willing to pay $200 million for Maxwell, I have to assume that they verified the claims and they believe the technology is applicable to their batteries. On a semi-related note, Tesla has also reached a deal with Electrify America to deploy Powerpacks at over 100 charging stations operated by the latter. "Demand charges, a higher rate that an electric utility charges when a user's electricity needs spike, are resulting in incredible costs for charging station operators," reports Electrek. "The use of energy storage at charging stations in order to shave the peak usage is a solution to those demand charges."

"[Electrify America] announced today that they will deploy Tesla Powerpack systems consisting of 'a 210 kW battery system with roughly 350 kWh of capacity' at over 100 charging stations," the report says. "The system will be designed to be modular in order to increase the capacity if needed."

Comments

Re:Queue the experts

[Anonymous Coward]

Well done, doosh-bag. Buy a clue before you provide expertise on electrical circuit design ... which you just proved you haven't got even the basics understood. It is true that a capacitor has an exponential shaped charge/discharge pattern but that is only from the capacitors perspective of total charge left in that component. Unfortunately, you seem to have forgotten about the basics of a closed circuit loop and the role of resistance, at the input voltage level, to create a specific draw of current ... which is what actually drives the smooth draw of current experienced by the load circuit. So, hell, frak-yeah, the use of ultracapacitors is an extremely attractive option. Stated another way, the smoothness you're using as the reductive proof is also false because the same happens with any other battery powered device; the capacitor just has the ability to charge/discharge it's load a lot faster, but the fast charge does not have to be evenly met with a fast discharge. The discharge for a sufficiently high enough capacitance can easily be drawn over a very long time ... especially if you add additional circuitry for a pulse based voltage multiplier circuit or include a series of coils for independent current generation that did not come from the source. Try doing some more research into the electrical pioneers like Steinmetz, Maxwell, Tesla, Whittiker, Dollar and then come back and comment, once you have an appreciation for the basic operation of electronic components.

You don't need to *stay next to the car*

[DrYak]

Anything over 15 minutes to recharge is terrible.

Are you aware that you don't need to stay next to an EV while it's charging ?

Get that recharge rate to where it can compete with internal combustion engines

Typical use on long trips :

ICE: pull out to the gaz station, quickly fill the tank, then *after the refill* move the car a few meters further (to free the gaz pump) next to the restaurant/dinner, then have your break there (coffee or lunch depending on the time of the day).
EV: plug in the car to the charging station, and go to the restaurant dinner to have your break (coffee / lunch) *while* the car is charging.

There's NO difference in practical use.
(Ah yeah, I forgot: there's the "I pee in a plastic bottle" that will insist on driving 8 hours straight without a single pause. Just please try not to crash your sleep deprived face into me, thank you.)

Typical use on short trips:

ICE: you take your car, but every now and then you'll need to add an extra detour to the gaz station in your daily plan.
EV: you take your car. It's already charged 100% overnight.

EV are actually better.