Porsche Ventures invests in battery startup South 8
South 8 Technologies has announced that Porsche Ventures has joined the company as a new strategic investor. Porsche Venture joins existing investors Anzu Partners, LG Technology Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Taiyo Nippon Sanso and Foothill Ventures.
“Porsche Ventures is an exceptional addition to our investor syndicate. As the venture capital arm of Porsche, they are keenly in tune with the battery imperatives for next-generation EVs and hybrids,” says Tom Stepien, CEO of South 8. “With more frequent harsh weather events around the globe, it is increasingly obvious that we need a battery that is optimized for reliable energy performance in extreme climates.”
But what about extreme weather and its impact on electric car batteries? When the temperature drops significantly below zero, electric vehicles suffer more than combustion engines because the batteries are slower to charge as the liquid electrolyte inside thickens. Drivers in Chicago learned this the hard way in January 2023, when many Teslas could not be charged during a severe freeze.
South 8 claims that it can make cold weather charging more reliable by filling the batteries with a pressurised, liquefied gas electrolyte rather than a liquid electrolyte. At the same time, it hopes to reduce the cost of lithium-ion batteries by 30 per cent.
“The battery costs about a third of the entire car,” CEO Tom Stepien told TechCrunch. So if costs can be saved in battery production, electric cars can be produced more cheaply.
South 8’s core technology, which the company calls LiGas, is based on a gas that is commonly used as a coolant. However, introducing the pressurised electrolyte into the battery cell poses a number of challenges. This is because the approach has so far only worked with cylindrical cells such as those used in Teslas, Rivians and Lucids. Today, however, most car manufacturers use prismatic cells or pouch cells. Stepien said the company would consider applying the technology to prismatic cells in the future. However, pouch cells would not be an option for the process.
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