What is USCAR?
United States Council for Automotive Research LLC is a collaborative research organisation comprising of Chrysler Group LLC, the Ford Motor Company and General Motors. Its main objective is to advance research in automotive technology in the U.S.
Objectives of USCAR
With the expanding market for vehicle electrification, the USCAR has invested millions in R&D in the following areas, but not limited to:
- Vehicle battery research, development of new materials
- Battery cell, module and pack testing
- Battery thermal management system benchmarking and ranking
- Fundamental battery research, especially development of new materials (ANL, LBNL)
- Characterization of battery materials (ANL, LBNL)
- Battery thermal management system benchmarking and ranking (NREL)
- More facilities to conduct battery pack-level abuse testing and increased dynamic evaluation of battery abuse models (SNL-NM)
- Traction drive, power electronics, inverters, DC-DC converters, permanent magnet motors and alternatives, wide band gap switches, (ORNL)
- Center of expertise for thermochemical reliability of bonded interfaces for power electronics and motors (NREL) • Electric drive benchmarking (ORNL)
- Increased R&D on rare earth alternatives (Ames)
Magnis and C4V's involvement with USCAR
USCAR's focused research and development in battery technology for electric vehicles amongst other automotive developments, provides the ideal playground for companies like Magnis to be involved in. In November 2021, Magnis proudly announced that their subsidiary C4V was selected to participate in the USCAR program. A US$2 million grant enables the team of three; C4V, BASF and American Battery Technology Company to work together on their battery research program. New York based C4V will be providing the lithium-ion battery cells.
