Christian Schaffner heads the Energy Science Center at ETH Zurich and assesses the status of the development of such batteries for SRF.
SRF News: So although Leclanché is starting with a future technology, it still has difficulties launching it on a large scale and making real money with it. What’s so difficult about that?
Christian Schaffner: Of course there are also completely different requirements or batteries in an electric vehicle. They have to last a lot longer and have to allow a lot more cycles. This is the only way a vehicle can be both economical and ecological. It has to be structured in such a way that these life cycles can be achieved at all.
But it makes sense that a company like Lclanché, for example, would now focus on batteries for ships, trains and trucks, doesn’t it?
Absolutely. I think that if we look at the transition from the combustion engine to the electric car, then we’ve come a long way with passenger cars. We see that in the area of a quarter of new registrations that are already electric.
In other areas, it takes a little longer. Other developments will certainly be needed, and that will be a big market. We also see this with delivery vans, for example. Then there’s the whole area with the trains and ships that you mentioned. We’re not that far at all.
They say the research is not that far along for ships, trains, trucks and vans. How long does it take for you to be marketable?
That depends very much on what exactly it is about. There is a lot already there, be it in terms of increasing the performance of batteries or in terms of their service life. There is already a lot of basic research, but it always takes a few years until a prototype is created and then later actually becomes available on the market.