Lightweight Williams EV battery unveiled

Hypercars and racing cars of the future are the targets for the high-tech offshoot of the Williams Formula 1 team that has shown off its new ultra-lightweight electric-vehicle battery and casing technologies.

The next-gen carbonfibre-based battery pack is claimed to deliver a 37 per cent boost in a battery’s energy density and a similarly massive increase in its energy.

The Williams Advanced Engineering Adaptive Multi-Chem system comes directly from Williams’ Formula E involvement, bringing massive reductions in weight and size.

Claimed to be perfect for motorsport, hypercars and even planes, the Adaptive Multi-Chem set-up uses a bi-directional DC/DC converter to push high energy and high density from the same battery.

The system is based around a flexible battery module, with the show battery storing 60kW hours of energy at just 345kg.

From this, it can deploy a 20-second pulse of 550kW, and it can absorb the same power in regeneration for 10 seconds.

It uses a carbon-fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) exoskeleton, made with Williams’ '223' weight-minimisation technology that allows three-dimensional structures from two-dimensional materials.

Williams claims it allows fast, low-cost composite production, including the use of recycled materials.

The exoskeleton weighs only 40kg, making the entire system 385kg.

“We are developing and delivering technologies that will shape the future of low-carbon vehicles,” Williams Advanced Engineering Technical Director Paul McNamara said.

“Our vast experience in battery technology – which has included acting as the sole battery supplier in FIA Formula E, not to mention undertaking many electric vehicle programs – alongside lightweighting and composites from F1, provides us with unparalleled expertise.

“We are well equipped to analyse and resolve challenges from energy management to aerodynamics and thermodynamics. These skills are being put to fantastic use, developing the technologies you see here and helping some of the world’s most successful manufacturers develop electric and hybrid vehicles.”

Williams has been involved in road and concept cars before, with its flywheel energy storage system at the heart of Porsche’s radical 911 GT3R and the diesel-turbine system in Jaguar’s C-X75 concept.