A few years ago, battery manufacturer Varta presented very ambitious plans for electromobility: unlike other cell manufacturers, the Swabians even announced that they wanted to build their own "power cell". This cell, called "V4Drive", could charge from 0% to 100% in 6 minutes and be used in numerous mobile devices and electric cars.
Shortly after market maturity in winter 2023, the BATEMO cell database determined an energy density of just 141 Wh/kg (gravimetric) and 401 Wh/l (volumetric). This is comparatively very low, but according to the manufacturer, the cell is not intended to function as a traction battery anyway: Rather, the V4Drive cells are used as so-called "buffer batteries", from which particularly high performance is demanded. For example, as additional batteries in hybrid cars for recuperation processes. Here, the V4Drive cell with 7.5 kW/l is actually ahead internationally.
In short, while the major cell manufacturers such as CATL, BYD, LG, Samsung and Northvolt produce cells for traction batteries for electric cars, Varta is going its own way. Varta has to convince device manufacturers and carmakers to bring additional batteries into applications. In the podcast, Varta CTO Rainer Hald mentions a first automotive customer who is testing the V4Drive cells in a hybrid car to enable the particularly fast acceleration of an e-hybrid model. Even if the market niche for the V4Drive is described as rather small, the battery manufacturer is proud to have its first foothold in the automotive sector with the power cell.
