Don't quote us but lithium-ion battery pioneer and Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner Professor Akira Yoshino, speaking to Singapore's The Straits Times, believes may have an electric vehicle on the road by 2025. Here's the quote from the broadsheet: "The one to look out for is @Apple. What will they do? I think they may announce something soon. And what kind of car would they announce? What kind of battery? They probably want to get in around 2025."
Other predictions from the ST article:
Somewhere, some time, with the auto industry and the IT industry, there will be some kind of convergence for the future of mobility.
With the emergence of autonomous shared vehicles, sometime between 2030 and 2050, hypothetically [they] could run on gasoline, electricity, or hydrogen (fuel cells). However, without the capability to automatically replenish its energy source, "the system is kind of meaningless," says Yoshino. This essentially discounts petrol and hydrogen as they require human intervention to refuel, [at least in their current formats]. Electric vehicles may one day be able to recharge on the go by traversing dedicated roads with recharging strips.
Yoshino is an honorary fellow at @AsahiKasei, where he conceived the lithium-ion battery (LIB) in the early 1980s, and completed a practical prototype in 1986. Asahi Kasei is currently the world's leading supplier of LiB battery separator films sold under the Hipore™ and Celgard™ brands. The former uses a wet process and was developed by Asahi Kasei. The latter uses a dry process and was obtained via the acquisition of U.S. company Polypore in 2015. Celgard technology originates from the former Hoechst Celanese Corporation.
LiB battery separator films are either fabricated from biaxially-oriented polypropylene (BOPP) or ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). Both processes involve stretching to form porous films, with the wet process requiring a "solvent" to form the pores. UHMWPE is either produced on dedicated lines, or swing-produced on HDPE production assets.
@Brückner supplies BOPP lines for both wet and dry processes, including its patented Evapore® dry process and LISIM® simultaneous stretching technology touted as the best solution for the utmost flexibility in the wet process.