The new 20Ah-HP SCiB battery is part of Toshiba’s SCiB product offering and has been specifically developed for heavy-load applications, such as the rail industry, where high power input and output are essential.
The new battery is also ideal for situations where battery cells must suppress heat and operate continuously, such as rapid charging of commercial vehicles, regenerative power systems for rolling stock, and industrial equipment.
The cell is the same size as Toshiba’s current 20Ah product, allowing current customers to easily upgrade to the improved input and output power with the same module pack. The cell is now available to order worldwide.
According to Toshiba, transportation markets are demanding batteries that deliver both high-energy and high-power characteristics, but until now this has required a trade-off for rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. In an EV, for example, a high-energy battery allows the vehicle to drive further on a single charge, but it lowers power input and output and extends charge times.
Toshiba drew on its know-how in current high-energy and high-power products to develop a new cell that successfully combines the advantages of both.
Compared to Toshiba’s current 20Ah cell, the new 20Ah-HP cell delivers 1.7x higher input and 1.6x higher output, realized by an approximately 40% reduction of resistance in the cell. This improvement efficiently suppresses heat generation when a large current is applied, allowing the design of a simpler cooling system.
For example, depending on the customer’s system, water cooling can be simplified to forced air cooling, and forced air cooling simplified to natural cooling. The lowered resistance also reduces overvoltage, allowing the cell to function in a wider range of state-of-charge (SOC).
The new 20Ah-HP cell also achieves a longer life than the current 20Ah cell by suppressing heat during continuous charging and discharging, due to its lower internal resistance. Under the test conditions, the cell maintained almost 100% capacity after 8,000 charge/discharge cycles, while the capacity of the current 20Ah cell decreased by approximately 10%.