The Energy Storage research and development (R&D) subprogram within the DOE Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) provides support and guidance for projects focusing on batteries for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) in support of the EV Everywhere Grand Challenge. PEVs could have a significant impact on the nation's goal of reducing dependence on imported oil and gaseous pollutant emissions. The Energy Storage program targets overcoming technical barriers to enable market success, including: (1) significantly reducing battery cost
(2) increasing battery performance (power, energy, durability)
(3) reducing battery weight and volume
and (4) increasing battery tolerance to abusive conditions such as short circuit, overcharge, and crush. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) supports the VTO's Energy Storage program by evaluating the thermal performance of cells and packs, developing electrochemical-thermal models to accelerate the design cycle for developing batteries, investigating the behavior of lithium-ion batteries under abuse conditions such as crush, enhancing the durability of electrodes by coatings such as atomic layer deposition, synthesis of materials for higher energy density batteries, and conducting techno-economic analysis of batteries in various electric-drive vehicles. This report describes the progress made by NREL on the research and development projects funded by the DOE VTO Energy Storage subprogram in FY15.