Apple could use cylindrical lithium-ion batteries with a hollow centre for its fully-autonomous electric vehicle. Although there is still no clarity on whether Apple is actually building a car or systems for carmakers, the company’s Project Titan is definitely an electric car project. Although, Apple as expected hasn’t divulged any details, the battery details have been reported by ETNews of South Korea. The report claims that with a centre opening of roughly the size of two fingers, the secondary lithium-ion batteries will offer better cooling.
Lithium-ion batteries in general generate maximum heat in the centre of the structure due to chemical reactions. The presence of a hole in centre hence aids smooth passage of flow, enabling effective cooling, thereby improving performance. This design can also be helpful in designing parallel connections for improvement battery capacity.
According to the report, the battery maker is a small South-Korean company with just about 20 employees. Apple didn’t make use of conventional battery designs as it intends to develop batteries independently, which will exclusively be used in Apple electric cars. The report adds that this undisclosed company might not be an exclusive supplier to Apple as it may choose to work with a network of suppliers, each bringing new concepts to the table.
Since Apple has been ultra-secretive about its car-project, details are scant and hence it’s hard to make out what difference the vehicle will bring to the market, if it gets made in the first place. Apple is betting big on transportation for future and even if it doesn’t come out with a complete vehicle, it could come up with critical system architectures, that can be personalised by different carmakers to offer unique experiences. Either way, once in the market, the fruits of Project Titan could very well prove to be disruptive for carmakers, who’re still struggling to come to terms with the product lifecycles of new-age consumer devices such as smartphones.
Whatever be the case, an Apple car sounds exciting so we would like to know from you what would be the key feature you would expect from an Apple car if it was up for sale. And just in case you’re wondering, Samsung isn’t working on a Galaxy car yet according to our information.
