Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOGL, Financial) Waymo self-driving car division and Tesla Inc.’s (TSLA, Financial) Model 3 rollout may be the current buzz in the passenger car sector, but it might actually be Volkswagen AG’s (XTER:VOW, Financial) Lamborghini division that could provide the greatest paradigm shift in driving technology this century.
Lamborghini is not typically known for mass-market innovations given its super high-end target market. It is more of a very expensive toy line for adults. Lamborghini may change that image with the introduction of its groundbreaking plans for its Terzo Millennio supercar.
It is not that the Terzo Millennio will not be super high-end. It certainly will, but the concept could change the entire transportation sector if it works. It is a concept car the company is developing together with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The idea behind the vehicle is to be a fully electric, supercapacitor-powered automobile that can be charged in minutes – with no bulky battery. Instead, it will be covered in a sheet of graphene, the most conductive material known to exist.
The car would be groundbreaking not just for the transportation industry, but for all markets globally because graphene has many potential applications. It is essentially a sheet of carbon atoms arranged in hexagons only one atom thick, is 200 times stronger than steel, completely biodegradable and compostable as opposed to today’s chemical batteries that are enormous, heavy, inefficient, and environmentally hazardous. Instead of holding a charge through chemical reactions as our current batteries do, graphene holds electrons physically and releases them on demand. There is no chemical storage mechanism, so the power is direct and clean.
The trick will be to manufacture enough graphene to coat the entire car, which is where MIT comes in. Lamborghini and MIT are collaborating on a three-year project, so far, to make the car a reality. That partnership could end up being extended as there is no target date for the car’s completion. Merely the fact the project is being worked on is exciting enough, because it means the company is serious about attempting the graphene revolution.
If Lamborghini and MIT can successfully and economically manufacture enough graphene to fit a whole car, we could eventually see graphene used in desalination, solar panel coating, smartphones with batteries that can be charged in seconds, fully electric cars charged in minutes, even entire bridges built out of this super lightweight, super strong stuff.
In January, scientists succeeded in manufacturing enough graphene out of soybean oil to cover a credit card. Whether Lamborghini and MIT will be using this method or a different one is not yet clear. Since this is the first major attempt by industry to manufacture the substance commercially, the two partners will probably try different methods until they find the most economical.
Success in the project would also be redemptive for Volkswagen after a scandal back in 2015 caught the company cheating on emissions tests for its diesel cars. Pioneering a graphene-powered car would go a long way toward repairing the group’s damaged image.
Disclosure: No positions.
