Lucid Motors Teams With Samsung SDI To Develop Next-Gen Lithium-Ion Battery Cells

Atieva, founded in 2007 in California, changed its name sometime ago to Lucid Motors in preparation for launching an electric car of its own design.

That car, a 300 to 400-mile BEV with up to 1,000 HP and a 130 kWh battery pack, will enter production in 2018 at the automaker's facility in Arizona and gets shown off tomorrow (Wednesday, December 14th) - but in order to bring that car (dubbed "Alpha" for now) to market, Lucid will need a battery breakthrough.

In steps Samsung SDI...

Lucid Motors and Samsung SDI announced a joint partnership on next-generation lithium-ion cells. Specifics were not mentioned in the press release, but there are a few choice quotes which indicate that the focus is on cell longevity, energy density and safety:

“The battery life demonstrated by the new cell will be of tangible benefit to our customers, particularly companies with ride-sharing services operating around the clock.”

“Samsung SDI combined their in-house chemistry expertise with massive real-world datasets and state-of-the-art battery models provided by Lucid to develop a cell that is both energy dense and resistant to damage associated with fast-charging.”

Press release below:

Lucid and Samsung SDI Strategic Partnership

Samsung SDI and Lucid collaborate on next-gen lithium-ion cells

“The battery life demonstrated by the new cell will be of tangible benefit to our customers.”

Samsung SDI and Lucid Motors are pleased to announce a strategic partnership for battery cell supply. Samsung SDI will be a major supplier of lithium-ion cells for Lucid’s first vehicle, an executive sedan scheduled to begin production in late 2018.

Samsung SDI and Lucid have collaborated to develop next-generation cylindrical cells that are able to exceed current performance benchmarks in areas such as energy density, power, calendar life and safety. Significantly, this jointly developed cell achieves breakthrough tolerance to repeated fast charging.

“I have been very pleased with the results of the collaboration with Samsung SDI in developing a cell chemistry that meets our stringent standards,” said Albert Liu, PhD, Lucid’s Director of Battery Technology. “Samsung SDI combined their in-house chemistry expertise with massive real-world datasets and state-of-the-art battery models provided by Lucid to develop a cell that is both energy dense and resistant to damage associated with fast-charging.”

“The breakthrough battery life demonstrated by the new cell from Samsung SDI will be of tangible benefit to our customers, particularly companies with ride-sharing services operating around the clock,” said Peter Rawlinson, CTO of Lucid. “I look forward to continued collaboration with Samsung SDI.”

“As the leading manufacturer of lithium-ion cells in the world, we are excited to be increasing our participation in automotive applications,” said J.Y. Youn, Samsung SDI Vice President of Sales. “It is an honor to be working with Lucid to help push their vision forward.”