The Future of EV Batteries with Battery Expert Bob Galyen
In this episode of Path to Zero, Tucker has an opportunity to talk to one of the most respected experts in the battery world. Bob Galyen was the lead battery engineer on the EV1, General Motors’s first mass-produced electric car that debuted in 1996.
Galyen led cell and pack development for auto supplier Magna International and most recently he served as chief technology officer at one of the largest battery suppliers in the world, China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology, or CATL.
He’s now heading up his own consulting business, Galyen Energy, advising battery makers and the Department of Energy on promising battery technology.
Tucker gets Galyen’s take on the Biden’s administrations goal for 50% of vehicle sales to be electric by 2030. According to Galyen, uncertainties exist about whether to build batteries using nickel-manganese-cobalt, lithium-iron-phosphate or something else altogether.
“It’s being able to harvest mother nature’s bounty of those materials that are necessary to build the batteries,” says Galyen. “You can talk about building batteries, but if you don’t have the raw materials, you don’t have a chance of building those batteries.”
Galyen is optimistic about technological advances with batteries.
“I believe we’re right at the fringe of some new major technological breakthroughs for mankind,” adds Galyen. “I have never seen so many people working in the field of science, on a common theme of improving energy storage than I see it today.”
Resources
- Galyen Energy Website
- Bloomberg – Battery Guru Says Automakers Should Butt Out of Making Cells
- CNN – How a battery shortage could threaten US national security
- Asia Financial – Tesla Shift to EVs With Lithium Batteries Closely Watched
- Yale Climate Connections – The US lags in the race to build an electric vehicle battery industry