In this exciting episode of Munro Live, Sandy visits the ONE (Our Next Energy) Lab and Head Quarters to have a talk and tour with Mujeeb Ijaz, CEO of ONE.
Our Next Energy is dedicated to exploring the outer limits of battery and energy storage technologies. Mujeeb starts off explaining that ONE believes that to understand the future of electric you also have to have a long hard look at the past of automotive which originally was predominantly electric. In the center of ONE’s facilities sits the Anderson Electric Car Company crown jewel, the “Detroit Electric” which Sandy is absolutely enamored with. Sandy and Mujeeb have a look through the styling and functionality of the vehicle with reverence and intrigue. An interesting fact is that Henry Ford’s wife owned and preferred the Detroit Electric to Ford’s own vehicles and made Anderson’s car her primary automobile. Anderson actually wrote to Ford directly at one point regarding the service of his wife’s Detroit Electric (costing a mere 90 cents after several thousand miles) imploring Henry Ford to instead consider electric for his vehicles. Other women of prominence who drove and preferred a Detroit Electric were Thomas Edison’s and John D. Rockefeller’s wife, as well as Mammie Eisenhower.
Mujeeb has assembled quite the collection of interesting electric artifacts from the past including an original alkaline Edison battery from the 1870’s comprising of a potassium hydroxide solution used for railway signaling that needed a consistent topping up of an oil solution to keep the water from evaporating. But the need to create a battery optimized and dedicated for electric vehicles lead the Edison company to create a nickel iron battery; one which is also displayed in Mujeeb’s lab. The nickel iron battery chemistry is robust and has stood the test of time. Some of the old Baker Electric batteries still function to this day.
Even back in the early 1900’s, electric vehicles were considered better for many reasons including they could be plugged into the grid, and they could be started in the cold more easily, and they were safer and easier to start than cranked combustion engine vehicles. In fact the safety issues regarding crank starting ICE vehicles caused Kettering to create the electric starter for various ICE vehicle producers at the time including Ford.
Moving to the present, Sandy meets up with Tim Hughes, Sr. Director of Product Development, who gives our viewers a walkthrough of the Ariesâ„¢ Structural Cell to Packâ„¢ battery which is ONE’s flagship battery technology. With 108 cells of Lithium Iron Phosphate chemistry in series producing 79 kilowatt hours of power, ONE’s unique approach makes a structural element out of the cells which results in a 76% volumetric cell to pack energy efficiency. Tim then goes into deeper detail on hour this system works which, if you are a battery enthusiast, you definitely want to watch.
From here, Tim and Sandy move on to looking at the Tesla Model 3 LFP (Lithium Iron Potassium) battery which houses some pretty slick technology and a very Lean Design, but no spoilers here, you are going to have to watch the video by clicking the link below:
