Maximizing Energy Density of Lithium-ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles: A Critical Review

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have nowadays become outstanding rechargeable energy storage devices with rapidly expanding fields of applications due to convenient features like high energy density, high power density, long life cycle and not having memory effect. Keeping with the pace of rapid development, specific purpose-oriented features of LIBs are being searched for to satisfy certain requirements. In the case of Electric Vehicles (EVs), the expected growth of LIB use is hindered because of the present level of driving range and battery pack size. However, both issues can be improved with elevated energy density at the cell level. Because high energy density will not only increase the driving range but also reduce the number of cells that will be required to deliver the same amount of power, thereby reducing the size of the battery pack. Higher energy density can be achieved by designing LIB cells through materials-based design as well as cell parameters optimization-based design. In this paper, a brief critical review of LIB cell design to maximize the energy density of LIBs for EVs from both materials-based and cell parameters optimization-based perspectives has been presented.