Materials Make the Difference in EV Charging
EV charging infrastructure is rapidly improving. With strategic design changes, including materials innovations throughout the charging system, it is becoming possible to deliver a recharge in minutes.
Significant developments for EV charging are set to unfold in 2025, bringing millions of high-tech opportunities for design engineers, installation workers, and electronics professionals. In 2024, global sales of fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles soared by 25.6% to more than 17 million units, and in 2025 charging infrastructure is poised to expand to meet the growing need for charging away from home. In early 2025, the U.S. Federal Highway Administration announced $635 million in grants to build out community-level EV charging infrastructure, seven fast-charging projects that build out charging and alternative-fueling capabilities along designated alternative fuel corridors, and a hydrogen fueling station in Bayport, Texas. In China, XPeng announced partnerships with Volkswagen and BP Pulse, the charging arm of oil giant BP, to add 30,000 charging stations across 420 cities in China. The European Union also plans to add more than 400,000 charge points per year for the next five years.
The success of these installations depends on technologies that bring fast charging to EV experience. Innovative materials, including those used in interconnects, are playing a significant role in making this possible, from the charging station equipment to the vehicle end of the equation. Inside EVs, battery technology is advancing with the use of advanced materials such as solid-state electrolytes, silicon anodes, and lithium-sulfur, which offer higher energy density and faster ion movement, allowing for quicker charge times. In connectors and cables, materials like graphene, copper alloys, and advanced composites are being used to reduce resistance and increase conductivity, enabling higher currents to flow more efficiently during charging.

Materion’s Dovetail Clad is a breakthrough solution that is produced by joining copper to aluminum side-by-side in long, continuous master coils in a cladding process that achieves an excellent metallurgical bond by significantly reducing the cross-section and thermal diffusion to create a thin, ductile intermetallic compound.
Materion has worked with automakers to develop customizable clad metals and inorganic materials that are used in both interconnects and EV batteries. Four goals guide its research efforts: To advance gravimetric and volumetric energy densities; to reduce charging times; to extend the lifetime of the batteries; and to create more sustainable manufacturing methods. The current Lithium-ion battery consists of a cathode (+) and an anode (-) material separated by a thin, porous polymer film soaked in an electrolyte solution. During the charge process, the Li ons move from the cathode to the anode. When energy is discharged during the EV’s operation, the LI ions move back to the cathode. The industry roadmap to improving batteries centers on developing new anode materials. Materion has been working on materials for batteries since the 1960s.

Dovetail Clad
“Many lithium battery cells require joining a copper anode to an aluminum cathode, but the options for connecting them are limited, expensive, and can be unreliable. We developed Dovetail Clad to address this issue,” said John Nickell, Senior Manager, Product Development, Materion.
“Dovetail Clad is a copper-to-aluminum strip that offers mechanical, electrical, and thermal advantages over ultrasonic or bolted attachments. This strip material is produced by joining these two dissimilar metals side-by-side in long, continuous master coils. The coils can easily be stamped and formed to create bus bars and lead tabs especially fitted to lithium-ion battery packs for EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.”
DC fast chargers for electric vehicles chargers provide a recharge in less than 30 minutes. (Although that may soon change; Chinese battery maker Svolt announced a new battery that can charge to 80% in 8.5 minutes at this month’s Battery Day event in Chengdu.)
Beyond the battery, material innovations are contributing to improvements in EV charging equipment, including high-voltage cables, charging connectors, and EV charging ports. These components face stress from high-current handling as well as from the environmental conditions that surround outdoor charging stations. Ruggedized components depend on durable yet high performance materials.
“Electroplated silver is a commonly used EV connector material in slower systems, but it doesn’t offer the material hardness needed to resist wear in rapid charge applications. We created iON EV clad to better meet the needs of electric vehicle charger connections,” said Nickell. “iON EV clad is a proprietary silver-based alloy that can be used as a drop-in replacement for pure silver. This highly conductive clad material enhances the contact surface’s friction characteristics and enables it to withstand the high current environment of fast EV charger connectors. Its outstanding wear performance and exceptional high-temperature stability enable long-life durability in use.”

Copper-beryllium parts
Materion’s copper-beryllium alloys are also used for charger spring contacts and connectors for sensors. While many design factors go into the development of new electronic components, material considerations have a significant impact on the final design. The company continues to prioritize research and development to meet the evolving needs of this continuously improving technology.
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