Axion’s Lead Carbon Batteries: Sweet Spot for Micro-Hybrid Vehicles?

By Jeff St. John

Lead-acid batteries. That's a four-letter word for many in the emerging plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle industry, where advanced battery chemistries like lithium-ion and nickel-metal-hydride have taken the front seat.

But advanced lead-acid battery maker Axion Power International Inc. (AXPW.OB) says that its new carbon electrode technology can give the world's oldest battery chemistry a new lease on life for vehicles known as "micro" or "mild" hybrids – and it has a deal with big battery maker Exide Technologies (XIDE) to put the proposition to the test.

New Castle, Pa.-based Axion uses a carbon electrode to give the battery a lifespan three to four times longer than those using traditional lead negative electrodes, CEO Tom Granville said.

That technology comes from a Russian company that had been developing it for superconductors, and Axion has invested about $50 million in adopting it for use in batteries since its 2003 founding, he said.

The beauty of Axion's approach, Granville said, is that it can be put in place of existing vehicle lead-acid battery lines.

"When that cover gets sealed, you can't tell the difference between our battery and the standard old lead-acid car battery," he said – except that Axion's batteries weigh about half as much without all that heavy lead in them.

Similar arguments have been made by other companies developing various forms of advanced lead-acid batteries, such as Firefly Energy, Atraverda, Johnson Controls (JCI), Effpower and Applied Intellectual Capital (see High-Tech Lead Acid Batteries for China's Electric Scooters).

Axion can make about one million batteries per year at the defunct battery plant in New Castle that it bought in 2006, Granville said. But a supply partnership with Exide, one of the world's largest car battery makers, that it announced in April could expand that significantly, he said.

Granville wouldn't provide volume figures on the four-year supply agreement. But he did say that Axion was seeking a $52 million stimulus grant from the Department of Energy to help it boost production at its factory at the same time it works with Exide.

Beyond improving on existing car batteries, Axion's PbC (lead carbon) technology could be suitable for what Granville called the "stop-start" hybrid market, and what Axion CTO Edward Buiel called the "micro" "or "mild" hybrid market.

Those last two terms refer to hybrid vehicles that use their electric motors primarily or solely for things other than powering the drive train.

Mild hybrids that supplement an internal combustion engine's torque to drive the car forward include Honda's Civic and Accord hybrids.

Micro hybrids, which don't supply any torque at all from the electric motor, include the GM Silverado hybrid and a host of upcoming vehicles promised by companies including Peugeot-Citroen, Daimler, and Ford Motor Co. in Europe.

Both types of hybrids can be considered "stop-start" hybrids, in that they can shut down their engines completely when at stop signs or traffic lights. That can cut fuel use by about 10 percent to 15 percent, Granville said.

Mercedes-Benz has said it wants to equip a wide range of its cars with such "stop-start" engines by 2011, according to a May report from Autocar.

Lead-acid batteries still don't have the same energy density as lithium-ion batteries – meaning they can't hold as much energy by weight – making them a "struggle" for including in fully electric vehicles, he said.

But lead-acid batteries do have good power density, making them good at capturing power from regenerative braking systems, he noted.

Axion's partnership with Exide isn't limited to vehicles – the two are also developing batteries to store power on the electricity grid or at other stationary sites, Granville said.

Axion could supply such storage systems for about $250 to $280 per kilowatt-hour, compared to costs of $1,000 and up that are generally cited for competing lithium-ion storage solutions, he said.

The company has a deal with the New York State Research and Development Authority to test its batteries for grid storage and to store energy from a solar power system at CUNY College in New York City. It's also working with San Diego-based Envision Solar on its plans for solar-powered car charging stations.

Comments

[Davewmart:]

Let's hope that some of the advanced lead-acid solutions do well, as they seem to be suited for a variety of applications.
$250-280per kwh if the price is the same for automotive as stationary applications does not seem to give a huge incentive for car companies to do the needed engineering to move from NiMH though - Nickel prices which are the main component of the cost of those batteries is way down, and many companies such as Ford with their Mercury have already done the engineering needed for very weak hybrids using NiMH.
Mercedes has designed their weak hybrid S400 using a 0.8kwh lithium battery - the first for this application.
Although they are a small volume producer their technology often finds it's way into other vehicles.
Since Toyota and Honda both use NiMH for their full hybrids it seems likely that they would tend to stick with their present technology for any very weak hybrids they do.

So far as I know most stationary grid applications would be looking to flow batteries as an alternative to lead-acid, not lithium, so again the price you quote may be high for this application.

I'd like to see advanced lead acid do well, but they had better get a move on if they are going to capture much of the stop-start market.
At the moment most car companies seem to be using lead-acid for basic functions, where they would no doubt welcome the reduced weight and increased performance of advanced lead-acid, but are designing around NiMH or lithium for the stop-start functions and anything more.
Once they have done the engineering for one solution without large savings they are unlikely to move, and $250-$280 kwh is unlikely to make them.

Jun 17 11:36 AM

[Dave Marsh:]

Nice to see someone other than Dennis Peterson write about Axion. The company may be worthy of merit, but it's stock is barely traded (6700 shares today as I write this). Apparently it has garnered no interest in the investment community since it's pop on the Exide news. I bought a little based solely on Peterson's seemingly infinite string of articles on it, and I even had to call my broker to do it, because Ameritrade's platform wouldn't even allow an e-trade on it. They didn't know why; the guy just said "a few stocks are like that". All I know is this stock is currently dead money, that has only gone down sice the Exide deal, on infinitesimal volume the likes of which is hard to find anywhere.

Jun 17 03:33 PM

[John Petersen:]

All of the BS happy talk about Li-ion and NiMH batteries is great for press releases and vague forward looking statements but the undisputed facts are (a) the factories to build more NiMH batteries and large format Li-ion batteries do not exist and will not be built for several years, (b) even if the factories already existed the world's mines do not produce enough lithium or lanthanum to support significant increases in production levels, and (c) for the next five to seven years, any growth in micro and mild hybrids will use lead acid or lead carbon batteries because they are the only available choice.

If you're interested in a detailed factual discussion of the natural resources issues, Jack Lifton is the go-to guy here on Seeking Alpha. For an exhaustive cost performance analysis that goes beyond the press releases and analyzes the hard data from the Department of Energy and other credible third parties, you may want to visit my author's page. Things are not the way many dreamers would like them to be.

seekingalpha.com/autho...
seekingalpha.com/autho...

Jun 17 04:51 PM

[sticktoitiv...:]

My biggest worry about axion is all the warrants issued on the stock.

Jun 17 09:52 PM

[John Petersen:]

Davewmart, the shortage is not nickel, it is the rare earth metal Lanthanum which is the "M" in Ni-MH. The shortages of both Lithium and Lanthanum are a lack of mineral deposits that could be developed for mining with enough time and money. They are shortages of minerals that have been developed and are ready for production today.

Factories for both types of batteries are in various stages of planning and some have even begun construction, but that is a multi-year process and until the factories are finished they can't make batteries.

Mines could be expanded but that process takes even longer than building a factory because of the permitting and mine development process. It can be done, but it can't be done quickly.

The fundamental market driver is environmental regulation that takes effect in Europe in 2012 and the US in 2016. Neither of these dates has any flexibility.

NiMH batteries cost $800 to $1,000 per kWh and large format Li-ion batteries are vaporware. Advanced lead acid and lead carbon cost $250 to $300 per kWh. That is a substantial price advantage.

Resorting to personal insults to discredit facts that you don't like and want to ignore is intellectually dishonest.

Jun 17 11:43 PM

[battman:]

Dave, you have quite the hate for Axion. The reason why all the car companies are using Li-ion is because of the perception of value. The same reason why a li-ion stock with no sales and no legitimate commercially producable product trades at ridiculous mutliples when a real lead acid company sells at a fraction of that even though it has revenues and profits. As an example, look at Zenn, a market cap of 120 Million and all it has is a 10% stake of an imaginary technology. Car companies are just giving the people what they think they want, the dream of this magical future with unicorns, rainbows and li-ion batteries.
Been there, done that, it was called Ballard power and the fuel cell revolution. Every car company picked a fuel cell company and promised within 10 years, we would all be driving fuel cell powered cars. People ate it up because that was what was supposed to happen. Flying cars, no more Saudi oil, life would be perfect. Well here we are 20 years later and stil using lead acid batteries to power the cars and Saudi oil at $ 70 a barrel.
Everything will have its place, but your insincere attempt to give a backhanded compliment to advanced lead acid won't make li-ion the unicorn of the automotive market. Well actually since unicorns don't exist, I guess it will make li-ion the unicorn of the automotive market. Okay now I'm confused.


On Jun 17 11:36 AM Davewmart wrote:

> Let's hope that some of the advanced lead-acid solutions do well,
> as they seem to be suited for a variety of applications.
> $250-280per kwh if the price is the same for automotive as stationary
> applications does not seem to give a huge incentive for car companies

Jun 18 08:24 AM

[Doug Korthof:]

NiMH batteries are not constrained by supply of the metals, even the "rare-earth" metals or the special additives (Vanadium, Titanium) needed for longer life: because used NiMH batteries can be profitably "mined" for all the chemicals that are needed for new batteries. The only cost is that of reprocessing the NiMH batteries.

Similarly, Lead-acid can be profitably recycled; all the metals and chemicals needed for new lead-acid batteries are in the old lead-acid batteries.

The differerence is the longevity, NiMH lasts up to 4 times as long.

But as for performance in an EV, good lead-acid batteries powered the 3200-lb. EV1 over 100 miles in range, not much less than bad NiMH (140 miles).

Lead-acid should be explored and exploited for all-electric plug-in EVs; no doubt, innovations such as Pb-C and nano-tech are possible, and lead-acid EV batteries can power an urban fleet of full-sized freeway-capable EVs such as the EV1 or RAV4-EV (or HondaEV) and small trucks like the S10-E or RangerEV.

For our business, we found that a 60-mile-range pickup truck is more than enough; we drove it to the jobsite in the morning, and, if necessary, charged it while working on the job. After all, you don't care how long it takes to charge while it's sitting there, and cars sit idle more than 90% of the time, on average. Especially if you're working on a job, you're not cruising the avenue.

Jun 18 09:29 AM

[John Petersen:]

The recycling of NiMH batteries may eventually be a reliable source of metals but for now the darned things are working so well that very few are being taken out of service. There will be raw material supply constraints until the US and Canada allow owners to get back to work in mines that were closed decades ago or the current supply of NiMH batteries begins to fail in appreciable numbers. Over the long term, raw materials supplies should not be a problem. Over the next 5 to 7 years, there will not be enough rare earth production to satisfy increased demand.

Jun 18 09:52 AM

[Douglas Kor...:]

A telling comment: "...working so well...few are being taken out of service...".

Reliability is, of course, the big advantage of NiMH and lead-acid; Lithium doesn't have that track record. Interesting that, as noted above, all the major manufacturers are committed to Lithium, a battery that, so far, has never powered an EV more than 50,000 miles on the same battery pack.

Almost as if all the auto makers were just pretending to make EVs, since they are avoiding the only technologies (NiMH and lead-acid) proven to work.

Actually, GM's Lutz admitted recently that the VOLT, with its postulated Lithium battery, is important for image, not for sales or profit. Image and PR, that means actually producing the VOLT-hoax is not a big priority with GM.

Jun 18 03:49 PM

[TinyTim:]

"Resorting to personal insults to discredit facts that you don't like and want to ignore is intellectually dishonest"

WTF?

Jun 18 03:51 PM

[John Petersen:]

I responded to a comment and then reported it as abusive. Apparently the moderator team agreed with me.

Jun 18 04:22 PM

[John Petersen:]

The following quote from a Johnson Controls Power Solutions Backgrounder should put the entire issue in much sharper focus.

"We sold 400,000 advanced batteries for start/stop micro hybrid vehicles in Europe in 2007 and 800,000 in 2008, with the expectation of doubling that number again in 2009 to approximately 1.5 million batteries. These vehicles achieve a 5 percent to 8 percent fuel savings compared to conventional gas vehicles."

johnsoncontrols.co...

We can argue about what the OEMs plan to do till hell freezes over but this piece tells us very clearly what they are doing today and have been doing for the last couple of years.

Jun 19 02:00 AM

[TATyszka:]

Would be nice if SA left a place marker with a "posting removed" message. I've responded before to a "message above me" and gotten thumbs down when that message no longer appeared above me.


On Jun 18 04:22 PM John Petersen wrote:

> I responded to a comment and then reported it as abusive. Apparently
> the moderator team agreed with me.

Jun 20 11:35 AM

[WayneinOregon:]

RE: """My biggest worry about Axion is all the warrants issued on the stock."""

I was wondering if anybody might explain what the above means as I'm considering buying some Axion stock soon. -- Thanks

Jun 24 01:11 AM