ASU engineers land $2M for electric vehicle research

A team of researchers from Arizona State University's Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering will receive $2 million to develop a new type of battery for electric vehicles. 

The team, which includes professor Cody Friesen of the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport and Energy, will develop multifunctional cells that act as an energy storage system for the vehicles. Their method is different from existing batteries because of its ability to better withstand a collision without the need for substantial packaging and protection. The research team is hoping to achieve this by designing the battery so it is more widely distributed throughout the vehicle, making the whole system lighter and safer. 

“We are very excited to embark on this innovative project that will radically transform how electric vehicle batteries are manufactured. Professor Cody Friesen has been very successful in a highly competitive funding environment with four Department of Energy funded ARPA-E projects,” says Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan, senior vice president for ASU’s Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development.

Friesen’s team is working on one of 22 projects in 15 states that will receive funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The agency invests in high-potential, high-impact energy technologies that are in the beginning stages of development, before any type of private-sector investment has been made.