Institution news
Valentina explained her role and involvement with regards to the conference, critical engineering challenges and why it is important for engineers to attend.
Q: Please could you briefly explain your role, involvement, and experience with regards to EV batteries?
Valentina Gentili (VG): I am an Advanced Battery Technical Specialist & Advanced Cell Manager at Jaguar Land Rover, with over 15 years of experience across a wide range of disciplines within the lithium ion advanced materials and automotive battery research and development fields.
In my current role I am responsible for the delivery of electrified vehicle technology in support of the product cycle plan. I manage a multidisciplinary team of material scientists, electrochemists and modellers. I am also responsible for the identification of advanced engineering requirements and for projects to support ongoing battery and energy storage needs, and coordinating activities with external consultancies, academia and suppliers.
Q: What would you say are the main challenges to EV batteries being adopted by consumers on a large scale?
VG: The main challenges for EV uptake are range, charge time and cost. These can be translated in the need to increase energy density, improve power capability, and more specifically power acceptance, and reduce the overall cost of material and manufacturing processes.
Q: How do you see those challenges being overcome in the coming years?
VG: A lot of effort recently is devolved in overcoming these challenges. The effort spans across different areas and disciplines: from the development of advanced materials (Co-free chemistry at the positive electrode and the silicon composites at the negative electrode); to improved cell design and engineering with the implementation of features to achieve higher energy density, as well as cell safety, durability and lifetime performance. Also, from a battery pack design there is a big drive to achieve more efficient packaging, reduce pack weight and make the pack integrated in the structural architecture of the vehicle.
Q: Regarding new technologies for battery use and operation, what would you say are the ones to watch for the future?
VG: The potential gains from next generations systems in terms of energy density are huge, it could be five to ten times in the case of chemistry such as Solid State, Li-Sulfur or Li-Air. However, today these technologies have only been proven at lab-scale and the TRL (technology readiness level) is still 1 to 3. There are significant technical and production scale-up hurdles to overcome and long timescales before the readiness of these types of chemistry can be proven for automotive application.
Q: Why is it important for engineers to join this year’s International EV Batteries conference?
VG: As mentioned above the activities for overcoming the challenges faced by the EV introduction span across multiple engineering disciplines. The International EV Batteries conference is a great forum to share ideas and approaches. Ultimately, we all have a role to play in the electrification revolution.
This year’s International EV Batteries conference will be taking place live online on 11-12 November 2020.
Join this conference to:
- Hear from battery experts from organisations including Arrival, Geely Powertrain Research Institute, Britishvolt, Department for Transport, London Fire Brigade, Warwick Manufacturing Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Magna Powertrain, Groupe Renault, Williams Advanced Engineering, Vertical Aerospace and the Health and Safety Executive
- Find out how specific challenges of integrating EV technology into heavy duty, aerospace and military applications are being managed by leaders in the field
- Plan for a more cost-effective, stable and energy-dense battery by hearing about state-of-the-art battery cell chemistries and design
- Gain insights into the latest battery testing techniques and technologies to ensure an efficient and safe battery
- Learn best practice for thermal management of batteries to ensure optimal temperatures for safe and efficient operation
- Join the discussion through our interactive roundtables and our live question and answer sessions with the speakers
To book your place, please visit www.imeche.org/evbatteries.