“We’ve almost doubled the cycle life of our cell, the core lifetime metric for any advanced battery technology, and because of that and its lighter weight, it is now sufficient to support the expected flight range and lifetime requirements of all typical eVTOLs coming to market.”
This is the latest news from Calif
ornia-based Cuberg, announced this week by Dr. Richard Wang, CEO and founder.
This achievement puts Cuberg’s lithium metal cells among the highest performing and longest-lived lithium metal cells in the world.
Yes, many other advanced lithium battery technologies have been created in the last 10 years, but because Cuberg’s technology was designed to integrate with existing battery manufacturing processes, it’s affordably scalable — as these other technologies have not been.
Looking forward, Cuberg expects that commercial production of about 100,000 of its commercial-sized 20 amp-hour (Ah) cells per month — which will supply batteries for about 400 typical eVTOL aircraft per year — will begin in 2026.
This aligns with the certification and commercial production timelines of many eVTOL companies. Cuberg customers already include Beta Technologies and Boeing.
Scale-up to commercial production will require a great deal of precise refining of manufacturing processes in order to meet battery certification standards and ensure quality control at the extremely high level of aviation manufacturing.
Cuberg was acquired by Sweden-based battery manufacturer Northvolt in March 2021.
Test results
Independent testing of Cuberg’s 5 Ah “pouch” cells has confirmed that cycle life has been extended from 370 to 672 cycles with 80% capacity retention, Wang explained.
It’s the first time a lithium metal cell has exceeded the cycle life of the most advanced similarly-sized lithium-ion cells. Cycle life has historically been an issue with lithium metal cells, which are prized in battery development due to their high-energy density and high-power output.
Lithium metal cells are also much, much lighter than Li-ion cells.
“The weight issue has been something of an elephant in the room or an Achilles heel in the aviation battery world,” Wang said. “With lithium-ion cells, eVTOLs would be too heavy to fly more than a short range, and much shorter than what many companies have publicly claimed. This is due to battery safety requirements from the FAA [U.S. Federal Aviation Administration] and EASA [European Union Aviation Safety Agency] evolving to become increasingly difficult to meet. It’s something that no one wants to talk about. A lot of firms have been planning to go to market with conventional Li-ion technology, but it’s not going to satisfy most commercial use cases. In our view, this fact has not been fully grasped by the industry.”
