San Diego battery technology startup moves into the fast lane with a partnership with Porsche subsidiary – San Diego Union-Tribune
San Diego battery technology startup moves into the fast lane with a partnership with Porsche subsidiary – San Diego Union-Tribune
Author: Rob Nikolewski
Published on: 2024-06-06 08:00:22
Source: Technology – San Diego Union-Tribune
Disclaimer:All rights are owned by the respective creators. No copyright infringement is intended.
A San Diego tech company that specializes in improving battery performance has just announced a strategic partnership with a division of Porsche, the German automaker that recently zoomed into the electric vehicle market.
“We’re a startup, we like to move fast and we like partners that like to move fast — and drive fast, too,” said Cyrus Rustomji, chief science officer at South 8 Technologies. “So working with a partner to integrate our solution into their high-end vehicles in the near future is very exciting to us.”
South 8, with offices and labs near Mission Beach, specializes in a trademarked liquefied gas electrolyte solution called LiGas that can be used as a component in lithium-ion batteries that go into electric vehicles. Company executives say LiGas helps vehicles charge faster, go farther, avoid overheating and operate in frigid weather.
Performance during freezing temperatures has been an issue for electric vehicles in locations such as Chicago and the Twin Cities, as well as in Northern Europe and Scandinavia.
“Your standard lithium-ion cells have a liquid-based electrolyte that tends to freeze at low temperatures,” Rustomji said. “With our (LiGas) technology, this liquefied gas electrolyte has substantially lower freezing points — down to about minus-100 degrees Celsius, allowing operation in these ultra-cold temperature environments … You could probably put a Tesla on Mars and keep driving it.”
South 8’s agreement is with Porsche Ventures, the automaker’s venture capital arm. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed and South 8 executives would not hazard a guess as to when Porsche might eventually integrate the technology into its batteries.
“We don’t want to speak for our customers because those are decisions they make,” said Jungwoo Lee, South 8’s chief technology officer.
Porsche rolled out its first electric vehicle, the $150,000 Taycan, in 2019. In January, the automaker released its second entry, the EV Macan, an SUV equipped with high-performance 100-kilowatt-hour batteries.
South 8 says LiGas can also be used in other sectors that use batteries, including energy storage, defense and aerospace.
Last August, the company announced a strategic investment with the venture capital arm of Lockheed Martin.
“Since the 1990s, batteries have pretty much penetrated every single aspect of our life,” Lee said. “So to me, the number of applications is (practically) limitless.”
South 8’s other investors include existing investors Anzu Partners, LG Technology Ventures, Taiyo Nippon Sanso, Shell and Foothill Ventures.
The company has also received funding from the federal government.
In early 2023, the U.S. Department of Energy sent $3.15 million to South 8 as part of the Electric Vehicles for American Low-Carbon Living program that seeks to bolster the domestic supply chain for advanced batteries.
Last month, South 8 received a $6.4 million subcontract in collaboration with advanced batteries materials company NanoGraf for the innovation unit at the U.S. Department of Defense. The funding is targeted to help improve safety and reduce the weight of the “wearables.”
U.S. soldiers often carry more than 20 pounds of lithium-ion batteries when in they are in the field, and the military is “looking for new technologies to help alleviate their pain points,” Lee said.
South 8 officials envision using the company’s LiGas components at energy storage facilities.
Instances of lithium-ion batteries overheating and catching fire in a chain reaction called “thermal runaway” have made headlines — most recently at the Gateway Energy Storage Facility in Otay Mesa. Cal Fire crews battled the stubborn fire for more than 10 days as the batteries kept reigniting.
Rustomji says LiGas is safer than conventional technologies because if a battery cell with LiGas is punctured or crushed, the gas will quickly evaporate.
“That means a shorter burn time and lower temperatures if and when a cell does go to thermal runaway,” he said. “That means thermal propagation from one cell to the next is substantially reduced, which means we can lower the possibility of all these fires that we see.”
Launched in 2016, South 8 Technologies employs a staff of about 45. Lee and Rustomji co-founded the company as a spinout after working together on lithium battery performance at UC San Diego.
Originally Published:
Disclaimer: All rights are owned by the respective creators. No copyright infringement is intended.
