LIBERTY’s overall target is upgrading EV battery performance, safety and lifetime from a lifecycle and sustainability point of view. The key objectives of LIBERTY are to achieve a range of at least 500 km on a fully charged battery pack, halved charging times, an ultimate safe battery system, a long battery lifetime of over 300,000 km for first life, the ability to reuse the battery pack for second life applications and sustainability over the battery pack’s entire life cycle.

These objectives will be achieved by developing a new battery system through smart combinations and implementation of innovations developed in LIBERTY, including a compact and safe battery pack based on high energy density cells and light-weight materials housing which is crash resistant; a versatile battery management system resulting in optimal performance and safety over the system’s total lifetime (first and second life); high accuracy state estimators allowing fast charging, enhancing range and lifetime, and guaranteeing ultimate safety and diagnostics; and an innovative thermal management system ensuring safety and preventing battery degradation during fast charging. These innovations will be demonstrated in a Mercedes EQC.

To ensure that at the end of life, battery packs can be dismantled efficiently and safe, LIBERTY will design a (semi) automated battery dismantling procedure thereby reducing costs for recycling and reuse. Since current standards for performance and safety testing have limitations for testing of developments like the ones targeted in LIBERTY, future-proof testing protocols will be developed for standardised EV safety as well as performance testing.

The innovations within LIBERTY lead to a compact high-performance battery pack with advanced diagnostic and control features and functionalities. In terms of consumer’s values, it brings extended range, short charging times, long distance travel capability, safety, reliability, user confidence and affordability.