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Forbes
13-07-2025
- Automotive
- Forbes
24M Technologies Could Make Electric Vehicle Battery Fires Less Likely
Electric vehicle fires are less likely, but they can happen in more dangerous places like garages. The media war against electric vehicles goes through phases, with different attack strategies coming to the fore and others receding. But one fear that continually enflames enragement is the possibility of EV battery fires. Despite the statistics showing that these are far less likely to happen than with cars powered by fossil fuel, they do tend to last longer and are harder for firemen to extinguish. But 24M Technologies reckons it can significantly reduce the incidence of EV battery fires. I talked to the company's CEO Naoki Ota and President Ulrik Grape about how their technologies could improve battery safety, as well as delivering better performance and recyclability. Battling EV Fire Disinformation With 24M Technologies There is a lot of disinformation about EV battery fires, or at least misleading framing. One British publication noted that in the UK electric car fires had grown from 131 in 2022 to 232 in 2024 – a rise of 77%. However, the number of EVs on British roads had risen from 664,148 in 2022 to 1.3 million in 2024 – a 96% increase. So overall EVs have become safer. There were 18,313 fossil fuel vehicle fires in the UK in the UK in 2024, 79x more than EVs fires, but there were only 26x more fossil fuel cars, so combustion cars were nearly three times as likely to catch fire. Nevertheless, any vehicle fires are problematic. Just one incident can endanger life and necessitate an expensive manufacturer recall even if nobody got hurt. 'EVs are safe, but there are incidents happening, and as you get more and more vehicles on the road, there's going to be more and more fires,' says Grape. 'In today's social media, it's going to get escalated. EV fires are much less frequent than combustion engine vehicle fires, but they are more volatile. They also tend to happen when you're charging the vehicle, so then you have a risk to garages and being close to your home.' Dendrite formation is the big danger for battery fires as cells age This is where the design of the cell becomes important. 'The more cycles a battery has, the more dendrites grow, and the more likely it is to be dangerous,' says Ota. This is like combustion engines, which are also more likely to catch fire when older. 'EVs have been around less time, with even the oldest just ten years old. But people drive cars for 15 or 20 years. Also, as you put more energy density in a battery, it becomes more dangerous.' However, more manufacturers are switching from Nickel Manganese Cobalt (NMC) battery chemistry to Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP), which is already safer due to lower susceptibility to thermal runaway. BYD, for example, exclusively uses this technology. However, the safety still decreases as energy density increases, and the roadmap is steep particularly from Chinese companies. The classic demonstration of LFP battery safety involves driving a nail through a pack, which can cause immediate conflagration with NMC batteries, but this is less likely with LFP. However, 24M doesn't see this as a realistic scenario. 'This doesn't represent a real internal short circuit,' says Ota. 'An internal short circuit is a very narrow area than a thick nail, producing a much higher temperature.' Enter Impervio: 24M Technologies' Battery Safety Superhero The technology 24M offers to combat this is called Impervio. 'Impervio is a three-layer separator,' says Ota. The separator is the membrane between the anode and cathode, which allows lithium ions to pass through but prevents a short circuit. The short circuit problem comes when dendrites form from the anode side. If they reach the cathode, they cause an internal short circuit that can lead to a battery fire. Impervio's third layer actively blocks dendrite formation and detects potential short circuits so they can be dealt with before they become dangerous, via cell replacement. 'When a dendrite reaches the impervious layer, it doesn't grow vertically from anode to cathode. It grows horizontally and in the end is dissolved, so it never gets to the cathode. This doesn't add a lot of cost. We can utilize the existing separator. It's like ceramic coating.' The extra middle layer of Impervio prevents dendrites growing from the anode to the cathode Just a few car fires can cause a company to recall all potentially affected vehicles, costing billions, because they can't detect which cars will fail. Ota likens Impervio to an airbag – you might never have to use it, but it's worth having just in case. 'When an internal short circuit happens, it goes in milliseconds,' says Grape. 'Once it starts, you can't stop it from the outside. The only other method being tried is containment, packaging something around the cell. The uniqueness of the Impervio separator is that it can tell you this cell has to be shut down because it's approaching a dangerous level. Back in the 60s, the seatbelt was introduced that made car passengers safe. Then we added the airbag to make them even safer. That is the message with Impervio. We're getting to such a high energy density in the cells that there are risks of contaminations. Impervio provides protection that allows you to do more targeted recalls versus all the cars of a particular model.' Portfolio Of 24M Technologies For Batteries In 2010, 24M Technologies was spun off from MIT by its founder, professor Yet-Min Chang. The lithium-ion flow battery was his original technology. Kyocera has been a strategic investment partner for five years, helping this to develop into a SemiSolid battery cell. Since then, Volkswagen took a 25% stake in 24M Technologies in 2022, leading to the development of more new technologies such as Impervio, addressing areas of energy density, low temperature performance, rapid charging, recyclability and safety. One technology is called ETOP, standing for Electrode to Pack. This bypasses the traditional cell-to-module-to-pack assembly. Instead, the pack is built from the electrodes directly. This provides a significant increase in energy density and goes further than the cell-to-pack systems being developed by Tesla, BYD and CATL. 'We're taking it one step further by making a unit cell, which is basically two or three electrodes, so the anode and the cathode are packaged in a unique way, and then we can build the pack from there,' says Grape. 'We eliminate the module stage.' This increases packaging efficiency from 60% to 70-80%. 'You can either pack more energy into the same volume or make a smaller pack that contains the same driving range.' Eternalyte makes lithium ion flow 4x faster at -10C Another 24M technology is called Eternalyte, which is a new electrolyte that improves battery performance. Using Eternalyte, Lithium ions in a battery can move twice as fast at room temperature and four times as fast at -10C, dramatically improving battery charging times and enabling six-minute recharging from zero to 80%. 'Zero to 60% would probably take two to three minutes,' says Ota. 'If the car can drive 600 kilometers, within two minutes you can add 360 kilometers, so it's very close to gasoline.' Eternalyte also remains liquid at -40C, unlike traditional electrolytes, so poor cold weather EV performance and range would be a thing of the past too. Lithium Forever is a little different. This is about the end of life for batteries and their recycling, particularly LFP, which can be so cheap to manufacture that recycling them isn't cost effective. 'Traditional recycling takes the old battery and melts it or uses chemicals to create a big 'black mass'', says Ota. 'Then they try to extract expensive metal only. Iron is a cheap material, and they don't want to even extract aluminum.' This is why LFP batteries are less likely to be recycled. Many batteries are too cheap to manufacture for recycling to be cost effective 'They only recycle 10 to 20% at the moment,' says Grape. 'That's why we need to think of avoiding the black mass process.' Batteries must be designed with recycling in mind so their component elements can be separated again. No polymer binder is used with Lithium Forever, enabling over 90% of materials, including active substances from the anode and cathode, to be recovered without the costly and energy-intensive black mass process. This makes LFP economically viable to recycle, too, and the materials recovered pure enough for reuse in new batteries. The process can reduce active material recovery costs from $20-30 per kg to $2-3. 'Now we can recycle very pure copper and aluminum,' adds Ota. The 24M Technologies SemiSolid batteries are already being manufactured by Kyocera, currently aimed at its Enerezza residential storage system. Kyocera has also commercialized Lithium Forever. There are 24M partnerships in China and India. Some big names that Ota and Grape couldn't mention are testing Impervio and Eternalyte. The 24M Technologies' systems have potential to improve the experience of battery electric vehicle ownership in many areas, but Impervio is the one that is likely to help combat public perception of BEVs and the ongoing misinformation. 'LG and Samsung had big recalls,' says Ota. 'If they used Impervio, they wouldn't have had to recall because they could just replace the failed cell. They could save lots of money.' If battery fires almost never happened, this would also mean one less argument for the anti-BEV media war.


Daily Mirror
27-06-2025
- Automotive
- Daily Mirror
Brits with EVs to charge their car much faster following huge breakthrough
A game-changing technological advancement could see the batteries in electrical vehicles (Evs) charge significantly faster and last longer - luring even more Brits to make the eco-friendly switch UK motorists whizzing around in electric vehicles (EVs) could soon see a huge battery boost thanks a major tech breakthrough. The innovation comes from 24M Technologies — the American battery specialists have developed a new electrolyte called Eternalyte, which holds the key to this amazing advancement. This new material is responsible for how quickly ions move between the battery's two main parts, the anode and cathode. The faster these ions can move, the faster the battery can charge. Eternalyte can achieve up to three times the ionic conductivity of standard electrolytes. In simpler terms, this means ions can travel much more quickly inside the battery, speeding up the charging process without sacrificing the energy storage capacity. 'I've had an EV for one year and small feature still scares me - it's not range' Thanks to this leap in conductivity, 24M says batteries using Eternalyte can charge four times faster than conventional ones, allowing drivers add over 300 kilometres of range in under four minutes, without needing ultra-powerful megawatt charging stations that are not yet widely available in the UK and Europe. This means our existing charging infrastructure will be enough to deliver these rapid charging times. Another big advantage of Eternalyte is how well it performs in cold weather. At 0°C, regular EV batteries can lose around 25 per cent of their capacity, while at even lower temperatures, they may lose nearly all of it. On the other hand, Eternalyte keeps nearly all its capacity at 0°C and still holds more than 80 percent at -40°C. This addresses a major frustration for EV owners in winter, as well as those who live in colder parts of the UK — where battery range and performance can drop sharply in freezing conditions. President and CEO of 24M Technologies, Naoki Ota, explained: "24M's Eternalyte electrolyte breakthrough solves some of the biggest challenges of lithium-ion batteries today. "Rapid charge, superior low-temperature performance and great cycle life with lithium-metal and other high energy density chemistries, Eternalyte provides outstanding performance for applications ranging from EVs to consumer products. It paves the way for next-gen batteries, including lithium metal, with 1,600-kilometre driving range and years of reliable performance." Originally designed for lithium metal batteries, Eternalyte is also suitable for the silicon and graphite-based batteries found in most EVs today. It can be integrated into current battery manufacturing processes, so car makers could adopt the technology without major changes to their factories. When paired with 24M's Impervio separator, Eternalyte also makes batteries safer and extends their lifespan, helping to prevent dangerous problems including battery fires. So, this brilliant breakthrough could soon make EVs much more convenient for British drivers, with ultra-fast charging and reliable performance whatever the weather — and all without needing to wait for new and improved charging stations to be built.


Japan Times
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
The persistence of Pride: LGBTQ+ events in Tokyo and beyond
The centerpiece parade and festival of Tokyo Rainbow Pride may be over, but there's still ample opportunity to celebrate diversity and show your solidarity with the queer community. The following programs and events showcase the creativity and resilience of queer people and platforms in a range of creative and professional domains. Queer Art Exhibition (until June 18): Stop by Harajuku for a group show at Baby the Coffee Brew Club, featuring 30 queer artists from around the world working in mediums from wood engraving and photography to illustration. Admission is free. Some of the artwork is for sale and there will be a tip box for contributions to the artists. You can also vote for your favorite artist in the show, with the winner receiving the Tokyo Rainbow Pride Award of ¥100,000. Instagram: @ (until June 18): Stop by Harajuku for a group show at Baby the Coffee Brew Club, featuring 30 queer artists from around the world working in mediums from wood engraving and photography to illustration. Admission is free. Some of the artwork is for sale and there will be a tip box for contributions to the artists. You can also vote for your favorite artist in the show, with the winner receiving the Tokyo Rainbow Pride Award of ¥100,000. Instagram: @ Events at Loneliness Books (June 20-22, 27-29): The queer bookstore in Higashinakano will host a number of programs on the final two weekends of June, including a book launch for Naoki Ota's essay collection 'Gray and Life,' a cinema club discussion and a release party for the latest issue of magazine Kaguya Planet. Instagram: @lonelinessbooks (June 20-22, 27-29): The queer bookstore in Higashinakano will host a number of programs on the final two weekends of June, including a book launch for Naoki Ota's essay collection 'Gray and Life,' a cinema club discussion and a release party for the latest issue of magazine Kaguya Planet. Instagram: @lonelinessbooks Rainbow Reel Tokyo (June 21-22; July 12-13): The 32nd Tokyo International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival will be held at two different venues in Shibuya, EuroLive and Tokyo Women's Plaza Hall. Five feature films and five shorts will be screened, representing productions from Belgium, France, India, the U.K. and the U.S., many of which are premiering in Japan for the first time. Instagram: @rainbowreeltokyo (June 21-22; July 12-13): The 32nd Tokyo International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival will be held at two different venues in Shibuya, EuroLive and Tokyo Women's Plaza Hall. Five feature films and five shorts will be screened, representing productions from Belgium, France, India, the U.K. and the U.S., many of which are premiering in Japan for the first time. Instagram: @rainbowreeltokyo Human Rights Conference (June 22): At Shiseido Hanatsubaki Hall in Ginza, LGTBQ+ activists, academics and professionals will convene to discuss contemporary social issues connected to this year's Tokyo Rainbow Pride theme of 'Same Life, Same Rights.' Three panels and a keynote speech will cover topics such as marriage equality, media misinformation and combating discrimination. Admission is free, but registration is required. (June 22): At Shiseido Hanatsubaki Hall in Ginza, LGTBQ+ activists, academics and professionals will convene to discuss contemporary social issues connected to this year's Tokyo Rainbow Pride theme of 'Same Life, Same Rights.' Three panels and a keynote speech will cover topics such as marriage equality, media misinformation and combating discrimination. Admission is free, but registration is required. Aomori Rainbow Parade (June 28): The coastal city of Hachinohe will host a parade on the final Saturday of the month, beginning from the plaza in front of city hall. X: @RainbowAomori (June 28): The coastal city of Hachinohe will host a parade on the final Saturday of the month, beginning from the plaza in front of city hall. X: @RainbowAomori Seisho Queer Pride (June 29): Manazuru, Kanagawa Prefecture, will celebrate Pride with a parade and party. Original merchandise will be on sale to support the local community. The parade departs from Manazuru Station at 11 a.m. Instagram: @seisho_queer_pride Looking past the summer and beyond the capital, a slew of regional Pride events — some launching for the very first time — are scheduled throughout the fall. Most of these programs have only the dates and venues locked in, and other details are yet to be announced. Make sure to check their websites for the latest information about how to attend or get involved.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
24M Named a Fast Company 2025 World's Most Innovative Company
Leading battery technology innovator recognized for fundamentally transforming battery safety, performance, cost and recyclability, 24M joins the ranks of Waymo, Nvidia, Duolingo, and more ORLANDO, Fla., March 18, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--International Battery Seminar – At this week's global International Battery Seminar, 24M Technologies, Inc. announced it has been named to Fast Company's prestigious annual list of the World's Most Innovative Companies for 2025. This year's list shines a spotlight on businesses that are shaping industry and culture through their innovations to set new standards and achieve remarkable milestones in all sectors of the economy. Alongside the World's 50 Most Innovative Companies, Fast Company recognizes 609 organizations across 58 sectors and regions. "We are thrilled to be recognized by Fast Company – a true testament to how 24M and our team are driving transformative change," said Naoki Ota, CEO of 24M, "This award acknowledges 24M's remarkable industry 'firsts' – disruptive inventions that enable a 1000-mile battery, prevent battery fires and recalls, power through extreme cold weather and deliver unprecedented fast charge performance. No other company is leading the battery revolution and delivering on the electrification promise that consumers have been waiting for." 24M Technologies was recognized for its transformative advancements in battery technology, reshaping the energy storage industry with practical, scalable solutions that overcome critical, decades-old challenges of battery products and technologies: reducing costs while establishing new standards of performance, safety and recyclability. Since its founding, 24M has trailblazed a path of rapid innovation. Combining decades of experience with out-of-the-box thinking, the company and its team are not satisfied with incremental improvements for clean energy; they have set forth to fundamentally change the electrification landscape. Recent 24M innovations include: The first-of-its-kind separator innovation, Impervio™, that can prevent catastrophic battery fires and mass recalls that have become prevalent in today's news; A new battery electrolyte innovation, Eternalyte™, that cuts charge time in half with minimal capacity loss at cell temperatures as low as -20°C; A streamlined cell and pack manufacturing process, 24M ETOP™, that delivers unmatched pack energy density and eliminates the need for complicated, high-precision processing that has challenged many manufacturers; A transformative sustainability innovation, LiForever™, that makes up to 98% of a battery's material recyclable without creating black mass; and Combining its suite of technologies to enable the 1,000-mile battery – a milestone once thought unachievable. The World's Most Innovative Companies stands as Fast Company's hallmark franchise and one of its most anticipated editorial efforts of the year. To determine honorees, Fast Company's editors and writers review companies driving progress around the world and across industries, evaluating thousands of submissions through a competitive application process. The result is a globe-spanning guide to innovation today, from early-stage startups to some of the most valuable companies in the world. "Our list of the Most Innovative Companies offers both a comprehensive look at innovation today and a playbook for the future," said Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan. "This year, we recognize companies that are harnessing AI in deep and meaningful ways, brands that are turning customers into superfans by overdelivering for them, and challengers that are introducing bold ideas and vital competition to their industries. At a time when the world is rapidly shifting, these companies are charting the way forward." The full list of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies honorees can now be found at It will also be available on newsstands beginning March 25. About 24M 24M answers the world's need for safe, affordable energy storage through its portfolio of battery technologies for electric vehicles, energy storage systems, consumer electronics and other battery-powered applications. By re-inventing today's battery designs and manufacturing processes, 24M solves the critical, decades-old industry challenges of energy storage products and technologies – safety, cost, performance and sustainability – to accelerate the path to a better energy future. Named a 2025 Fast Company Most Innovative Company and with roots in MIT Labs, 24M is led by several of the battery industry's foremost inventors, scientists and entrepreneurs. The company is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a presence in Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit About Fast Company Fast Company is the only media brand fully dedicated to the vital intersection of business, innovation, and design, engaging the most influential leaders, companies, and thinkers on the future of business. Headquartered in New York City, Fast Company is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow business publication Inc. For more information, please visit Eternalyte™, Impervio™, 24M ETOP™ and LiForever™ are pending trademarks of 24M Technologies Inc. View source version on Contacts Eileen Flynneflynn@ Sign in to access your portfolio