Climate change was poised to create an interesting catch-22 for electric vehicles. Electrifying transportation can go a long way to reducing carbon emissions that are driving up global temperatures.
Climate change was poised to create an interesting catch-22 for electric vehicles. Electrifying transportation can go a long way to reducing carbon emissions that are driving up global temperatures. But warmer temperatures also accelerate the degradation of batteries, whose performance can be a make-or-break factor for people considering an EV purchase.
In a new study led by the University of Michigan, however, researchers have shown that batteries have gotten a lot better over the past several years. So much so, in fact, that their gains will more than offset their expected heat-related degradation on a warming planet. The research was supported by federal funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
“Thanks to technological improvements, consumers should have more confidence in their EV batteries, even in a warmer future,” said Haochi Wu, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Wu performed the work as a visiting doctoral student at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability, or SEAS.
Read more at: University of Michigan
