VW Working on Numerous Electric-Drive Programs, Says Eberhard

VW Working on Numerous Electric-Drive Programs, Says Eberhard

By John O'Dell August 20, 2010

Former Tesla CEO's a Big Fan of Commodity Batteries for EVs, But Says All's On Table At VW R&D 

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

When former Tesla CEO and now VW battery research program director Martin Eberhard was interviewed by Britain's AutoCar last week, he had quite a bit of interesting stuff to say about his new employer and the state of the battery industry today.

The interview was presented in a Question-and-Answer format, and while we thought it important enough to quote from in a piece we posted a week ago , we also caught some very British-sounding terminology that made us wonder how much of Eberhard's answers were actually presented as delivered.

We sent a copy of the Q&A to Eberhard and asked for an interview ourselves.

Turns out that while the main point of the article was correct - Eberhard does see the day of the 500-mile EV coming - Mr. E tells us that some of the As to the Qs weren't quite what he said.

We're not trying to question the accuracy of the AutoCar piece - Eberhard does that on his own. But we do believe that the subject matter is important enough to revisit it and share with you what Eberhard told us directly.

One key point - Eberhard told Green Car Advisor that Volkswagen is working on numerous electric drive programs and that his group's work on battery packs made up of  the "18650" lithium-ion cells that power Tesla Roadsters and are widely used in the laptop computer industry is only one small part of the effort.

The AutoCar article had Eberhard mentioning VW's development of the Blue e-Motion Golf, the E-Up! electric city car (pictured above) and the Audi e-tron electric sports car and saying "we're working exclusively with the 18650-type cells."

Turns out that Eberhard's "we' was his self-described "little group" at VW's research center in Palo Alto, Calif., not all of Volkswagen.

Eberhard also said the Q&A piece got him wrong on discussion of the pace of development and delivery of more powerful versions of the 18650 cell (which looks about like the AA batteries we use in lots of consumer electronic devices).

The article says Eberhard is working with 2.9 amp-hour cells at VW now and expects to begin taking delivery of new 3.4 amp-hour cells in the near future.

He told us, however, that his group is now working with 2.4- and 2.6-amp-hour cells "and 2.9s are available and there's talk of 3.0's out there. We know we'll see 3.4's in the next year or so, but I don't know that we'll take delivery that soon."

The amp-hours of energy that can be crammed into a battery pack's cells help determine the range of travel a full pack can deliver on a single charge.

Eberhard said the growth rate in battery cell energy capacity had been running about 8 percent a year "and my bet is we'll be on an 8 percent annual growth rate" in the future.

In 2004, when development on the Tesla battery began, "the state of the art in batteries was on the order of 2.0 amp hours," he said.

While he's sold on the capabilities of battery packs built from 18650 cells (the name is derived from their measurements - 18 mm diameter and 65 mm length, with the "0" tossed in just to make things interesting), Eberhard acknowledges that he's just one voice and that higher-ups at VW aren't as enthusiastic as he is about the cylindrical cells.

"VW researchers, he said, "are looking at everything. There are many different research groups" including those continuing to investigate improvements in diesel technology, hydrogen fuel cells and hybrid-electric powerplants as well as flat or "prismatic" and "pouch" type lithium-ion batteries.

"It is my group that's focused on pure electric drive," he said, adding that batteries are everything in the EV business. He said he believes the 18650 cell, a so-called commodity battery, is the best hope for delivering less costly and more energy-dense batteries because so many are made and so much work is being done by so many to improve them.

Batteries, said Eberhard,  "are the most critical and difficult component of an electric car, and the one we must absolutely get right."

John O'Dell:  is an AutoObserver Senior Editor. Follow @AutoObserver on Twitter.