Lithium-air
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Lithium-air batteries, with high energy density, low weight and useful stability, are a major candidate for future electric car batteries. However, commercialization may not happen for another fifteen years or more given current limitations, so improvements in the meantime must be found elsewhere. Toyota is researching solid-state lithium-ion batteries as a mid-term alternative, while lithium-air's bugs are ironed out. According to Green Car Congress (via Charged EVs), Toyota's prototype cells have energy density of 400 Wh/L--some way short of the 1,000 Wh/L energy density of lithium-air, but...
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How Hard Is Lithium-Air Battery Research? Pretty Tough, ActuallyIt's hard to keep track of all the future battery technology candidates, but lithium-air battery technology is among the most widely-researched. Its biggest draw is the potential to store three times the energy in batteries the same size and weight of today's electric vehicles--providing huge...
Antony Ingram -
Volkswagen To Triple Battery Capacity With Lithium-Air Technology?
Fossil fuels may not be the cleanest way of powering us between two points on a map, but there's little doubt they offer convenience. So far, scientists have struggled to find batteries for electric cars that match the huge amounts of energy stored in a gallon of gasoline or diesel. As a result we...
Antony Ingram -
Electric-Car Battery Breakthroughs: Ultimate Guide
If it wasn't so important for the future of electric cars, it could almost get tiresome: Just how do you improve batteries for longer life, quicker charging and a greater range? It's a question being investigated by great minds all around the world, and has turned up some surprising and exciting...
Antony Ingram -
Do We Really Need 500-Mile Electric Car Batteries?
Back in January, we told you about IBM’s quest to build a rechargeable lithium-air battery that could theoretically let an electric car travel 500 miles on a single charge. Since then, more firms have joined IBM on its Holy Grail adventure, leading to a flurry of stories heralding the end to...
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield -
500 Mile Electric Cars? New Lithium-Air Tech Has Potential
We'd be the first to point out that many of the electric car owners currently out on the roads have had absolutely no trouble with the 100 or so miles they get from a full charge. However, it'd be foolish to assume that some people really don't need more than that, and as a result there's always...
Antony Ingram -
It appears Volkswagen is copying Toyota’s commitment to offer a hybrid option on every model in its lineup, if the latest comments from the automaker’s CEO, Martin Winterkorn, are to be believed. The German auto giant sees hybrids, more specifically, range-extended plug-in hybrids, as the most viable option going into the future, with even its small cars expected to benefit from the addition of an electric motor and battery. The information was revealed during an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, where Winterkorn explained that new electric cars like the Nissan Leaf are not...
