Hitachi High-Tech Corporation announces the development of a service to diagnose the degradation status remotely for on-board automotive lithium-ion batteries.
Achievement of stable and efficient operation of the battery is becoming quite important for the deployment of electric vehicles (‘EVs’). Hitachi High-Tech will start to propose this service to global customers through various networks to contribute to a circular society by solving customer issues.
Lithium-ion batteries
Hitachi High-Tech has analyzed thousands of lithium-ion batteries and its operational data which is remotely taken from EVs in commercial operation. This field trial contributed to develop the technology to estimate the degradation of State of Health (SOH) of lithium-ion battery packs and cells accurately. It has also been demonstrated to keep track of the time-series SOH of on-board batteries and to monitor changes from the past to the present.
This will allow customers to centrally manage a large number of EVs in commercial operation efficiently
This will allow customers to centrally manage a large number of EVs in commercial operation efficiently. This field trial was carried out in collaboration with ITOCHU Corporation (‘ITOCHU’). ITOCHU has the capability of automotive fleet management and will start proposing this service to its global network that includes automotive manufacturers, fleet leasing, and financial companies.
Carbon-neutral society
Achievement of stable and efficient automotive fleet management is becoming quite important for the deployment of EVs that grows rapidly towards the realization of a carbon-neutral society. To date, it has been necessary to remove the batteries from the vehicle to diagnose the degradation of on-board batteries, but the introduction of this service enables to monitor the degradation remotely and provides an operational environment to make the most of battery life.
The management of the on-board usage history will also lead to the development of opportunities to utilize used EV batteries to the energy storage system or efficient recycling for material recovery. Particularly, this service is expected to promote the transition to electric vehicles in the commercial sector, where the vehicle utilization rate is higher due to long driving distance with the extended operational time that will heavily impact on battery degradation.
Materials analytical system
Hitachi High-Tech aims to contribute to realizing a circular society by supporting the entire battery lifecycle
In 2020, Hitachi High-Tech developed Rapid diagnostic method for battery degradation that instantly assesses the performance degradation and remaining life of lithium-ion batteries. In addition, the technology which is released this time has developed in cooperation with the Research and Development Group of Hitachi, Ltd.
Their technology also has been contributing traditionally to battery safety by utilizing X-ray foreign materials analytical system which can perform everything from foreign materials detection to elemental identification in the manufacturing process of lithium-ion batteries.
Hitachi High-Tech aims to contribute to realizing a circular society by supporting the entire battery lifecycle. Hitachi High-Tech will solve social issues with the customers using Observation, Measurement, and Analysis, and contribute to the realization of a sustainable society.
