By Keith Norman, Chief Sustainability Officer – Lyten | 9/13/2023
Weight. The heavier something is, the more energy it takes to move it. The more energy it takes to stop it. The more materials we mine from the earth to construct it. The heavier burden on infrastructure to support it. And the higher the safety risk if something goes wrong.
Weight is directly proportional to emissions for all the above reasons. Every kilogram of additional weight translates into more energy, more steel, more cement, more strain on infrastructure and frankly, more adverse safety outcomes impacting human life. If we are going to achieve a Net Zero world, it must, by definition, be a lighter world.
This challenge is maybe most clearly at play in the world of transportation, where 20-30% of the world’s emissions are estimated to be directly caused by the movement of people and goods via air, road, and sea. Over the last few months, I am hearing weight come up as a top issue more and more frequently as we move to electrify the transportation sector.
This past week, Ned Curic, CTO of Stellantis, a globally leading auto manufacturer (and Lyten investor), laid out their goal of cutting EV battery weight by 50% by 2030, highlighting the importance of fundamentally new approaches to get there.
At Lyten we are bringing to market both a high energy density, low weight Lithium-Sulfur battery and lightweighted composites that we are designing to strip weight out of vehicles, aircraft, and logistics without losing performance.
Read a few of the articles covering Ned’s comments:
Motor Illustrated: Stellantis Aims for Lighter EVs with Batteries Innovations
Inside EVs: Stellantis On A Quest To Halve Battery Weight In Pursuit Of Lighter EVs
Interesting Engineering: Stellantis shares plans to make EV batteries 50% lighter