Electrochemical Vehicle Powerplants

This paper reviews recent work on high power and energy density batteries, which are being studied as possible electrochemical energy storage devices for electric vehicle power-plants. The requirement of high energy density for vehicle applications leads to the selection of battery systems made up of light, highly reactive metals found in the upper left-hand corner of the periodic table for one electrode and the light oxidizers found in the top right-hand corner of the periodic table for the other electrode. Many of these reactive materials will react with water and, hence, water based electrolytes cannot be used in these systems.

The parameters relevant to achieving high energy, high power batteries are discussed and several systems presently being studied are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the Li-Cl_2M battery.