As EV-haters constantly remind us, the liquid electrolytes used in current EV batteries can catch fire or even explode in emergency situations such as a charging fault or a crash, or in the case of a defective cell. Solid-state cells are expected to be much safer, but they’re just beginning to appear in limited numbers of production vehicles.
South 8 Technologies has developed what appears to be an alternative. The company’s Arctic LiGas 18650 cell, introduced at the recent Advanced Automotive Battery Conference in San Diego, replaces the toxic and flammable liquid electrolyte with a patented “liquefied gas electrolyte.”
