Airbus and Renault join forces to develop a new generation battery

Electricity, energy of the future for all modes of travel? It is in any case one of the avenues favored by the automotive sector and on which the world of aeronautics is also very actively looking through future hybrid electric aircraft. To share their knowledge on the subject, Airbus and the Renault group have just signed a research and development agreement “to accelerate the electrification roadmaps of the two companies, by improving their respective range of products”, while the aircraft manufacturer European Union is organizing today and tomorrow its summit on sustainable aerospace technologies.

“As part of this partnership, the engineering teams of Airbus and Groupe Renault will join forces to mature technologies related to energy storage, which remains one of the main obstacles to the development of electric vehicles. with long autonomy”, indicates a joint press release from the two groups.

Doubling the energy density of batteries

In particular, they will focus on optimizing energy management and improving the weight of batteries and their limited storage capacity, which remains one of the major problems. The two companies’ goal is to find a way to “move from current cell chemistries (advanced lithium-ion) to all solid-state designs that could double battery energy density by 2030.”

At a time of “flight shaming” and movements openly criticizing manufacturers’ “greenwashing” operations, the two groups specify that “the complete life cycle of future batteries, from production to recyclability”, will be taken into account. as well as “their carbon footprint over their entire life cycle”.

“For the first time, two European leaders from different sectors are sharing their engineering knowledge to shape the future of hybrid-electric aircraft. Aviation is an extremely demanding field in terms of safety and energy consumption, just like the automotive industry. Within Groupe Renault, our ten years of experience in the electric vehicle value chain allow us to have some of the strongest feedback in the field and expertise in the performance of battery management systems.” indicated Gilles Le Borgne, Engineering Director. Renault aims, like Airbus, for “net zero emissions by 2050”.


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