Scientists in Germany may have found the holy grail of batteries with their new lithium-metal solution.
You no doubt know that, currently, lithium-ion batteries power electric vehicles. However, their relatively short driving ranges for EVs result in 'range anxiety' and therefore has a knock-on effect on the speed of take up of EVs by motorists.
Around the world, researchers have been working hard to find better, longer-lasting battery solutions that don't weigh a ton or cost an arm and a leg. Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology now believe they have discovered a new lithium-metal (as opposed to lithium-ion) solution that could last far longer and be much safer.
Its energy density is twice that of current lithium-ion batteries and, therefore, can keep running for twice the distance. Better yet, its new lithium-metal battery retains 88 percent of its initial storage capacity after 1,000 cycles - so it lasts for a very long time. More research still needs to be concluded but this looks like being a fabulous step forward.
The good news extends further. OGN reported in May that researchers at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences had discovered what is being referred to as the holy grail of battery breakthroughs, solving a 40-year quest for a fast-charging, long-lasting electric vehicle battery - with their lithium-metal battery.
So, surely, now that the pursuit of the so called battery holy grail appears to be imminent on both sides of the Atlantic, one of them will succeed in making the new product commercially viable and readily available in the not too distant future.
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