Porsche wants to produce race car batteries with silicon anode from 2024

Porsche has set up a joint venture with a German battery manufacturer to produce batteries with silicon anodes for electric cars from 2024. These lithium-ion batteries have a higher energy density than conventional batteries with graphite anodes.

With the Weissach Development Center factory, Porsche is aiming for an annual capacity of 100MWh, writes Autocar, among others. That should be enough to power a thousand EVs with batteries. Porsche does not want to use the batteries for ‘regular’ sports cars such as the 911, but will use the batteries for racing cars and ‘high performance’ versions of road cars.

The advantage of the silicon anode batteries is that they have a higher energy density than the usual graphite anode batteries. In addition, they can charge faster, both at the plug and via regenerative braking, and they are more resistant to higher temperatures.

To Welt am Sonntag, Porsche CEO Oliver Blume says that the silicon anode batteries should have a 40 percent higher energy density and can be charged in less than 15 minutes. In comparison, the Porsche Taycan can charge from 5 to 80 percent in 22.5 minutes. In practice, this greater energy density could mean that the range increases by 100 kilometers ‘with the same weight’. Porsche does not provide details about the battery capacities.

Porsche warns, according to Autoblog, that these batteries are not suitable for mainstream use. The silicon anode batteries do not withstand temperatures below freezing and are not designed to be used for years, the manufacturer says. These issues would play little to no role on race cars. If the batteries are successful, other manufacturers within Porsche’s parent company Volkswagen Group could also use the batteries, such as Bugatti and Lamborghini.

For the battery factory, Porsche has established the Cellforce joint venture with the German company Custom Cells. Porsche will get 83.75 percent of Cellforce with the deal, Custom Cells will get the rest. The German car manufacturer is investing several tens of millions of euros in Cellforce, German governments are investing 60 million euros. In return, the factory will be located in southern Germany.