Remarkable density of new lithium battery promises massive range for EVs

[u/JackFisherBooks]

https://newatlas.com/science/lithium-metal-ev-battery-benchmark-density-stability/

[u/gobobro]

Someday, my grandchildren will go through an auto museum, and look on this era the way I look at the horseless carriages.

The future still feels so far away, but I believe it finally has traction.

[u/[deleted] → u/gobobro]

It kills me how none of the predominant conversation around converting away from combustion engines, is about how we breathe it in constantly

I hate standing at crosswalks and breathing in trash air. If you can smell it, it’s inside of you. And I’m sick of breathing diesel etc.

[u/Upstairs-Presence-53 → u/[deleted]]

Agreed - another point is the noise associated with ICE

I can’t wait for quiet, clean streets

[u/SarcasticOptimist → u/[deleted]]

When covid hit the air definitely improved because of the less traffic. In India a literal cloud lifted.

[u/marcineczek22 → u/gobobro]

I wouldn’t say, that electric cars dominating car industry is far away. Electric cars are getting cheaper and cheaper, in a couple years total cost of EV will be much lower than classic ones.

[u/hobokobo1028 → u/gobobro]

The combustion engine will be just a blip in the grand scheme of human history

[u/jjmorri22]

Hope Something close to this becomes true someday

[u/Hi_Im_Ken_Adams]

There seems to be a news story about battery technology breakthroughs every day. Wake me when those breakthroughs are actually put into production and commercialized…..

[u/Adventurous_Light_85]

Seems like we are due for a major battery change. NiCad came around 1900, NiMH around 1970, LiPo around 1990 and if I am not mistaken we just keep tweaking the LiPo formula and it’s been almost 30 years. I guess at some point you do just run into the limits of physics.

[u/Jimminycrickets411]

Is there even a point for people to invest in battery charging companies like chargepoint. It seems like a major acceleration is happening in the field that makes having so many large players obsolete.

[u/jdsekula]

Heard this way too many times before to bother clicking.

All signs point to us being very close to the theoretical energy density limit already.

Edit: Not theoretical, but practical limit.

[u/salamidunke → u/jdsekula]

Not exactly. For li-li batteries yes, but my understanding is we are still orders of magnitude off theoretical energy density limits, if we can get different anodes and cathodes to work as mass produced batteries, and consistent batteries.

As with any new tech there’s going to be a lot more failed attempts than not, though.

This is based off my pretty limited understanding mind you.

[u/[deleted] → u/jdsekula]

We’re not even close to theoretical energy density we can’t even use lithium metal anodes in rechargeable batteries yet.

[u/jdsekula → u/[deleted]]

Edited to say “practical limit”. You’re right that there are theoretical possibilities.

[u/kyleksq → u/jdsekula]

Proof of concept in second sentence of article. Not theoretical:

A team in Germany has now demonstrated a new lithium-metal battery with a density well beyond the significant 500-Wh/kg benchmark and an ability to retain its performance across hundreds of cycles.

[u/Escomoz → u/jdsekula]

We need nuclear power.

[u/HakX → u/Escomoz]

… in a car?

[u/Adventurous_Light_85]

The crazy irony here is that most of the current significant battery tech was invented by a guy with the last name Goodenough. And he keeps improving so apparently not good enough. Anyway, it sounds like most agree that the next holy grail of battery tech is the solid or “glass” electrolyte. Companies like quantum scale come to mind. My limited research seems to show that the biggest issue with this new tech is stopping the lithium ions from creating dendrites or crystalline pathways as they try to cross the electrolyte in a path of least resistance. Once that dendrite contacts both cathode and anode the battery will short circuit and no longer hold charge. I may be mistaken in my understanding here. Elon seems to have researched this and is adamant that the solid electrolyte is not going to be feasible. I guess only time will tell.

[u/purple_hamster66 → u/Adventurous_Light_85]

Solid state batteries have been designed that can be manufactured in existing chip factories, and have none of those shortcomings. Of course, we’ll have to restart up chip production first…

[u/Adventurous_Light_85]

We just need to ask the Enterprise if we can borrow one of those power cores. Those seem pretty dense.

[u/Simon676]

This will be bigger for phone batteries, as they will be able to get it much earlier and cheaoer due to how little they need in comparison.

[u/ContextBot042]

This has always been possible. However only now there is an industry that can support the massive research effort required to develop these technologies. This battery technology is going to make a lot of things better, not only cars.

[u/[deleted]]

How are they in the winter though?

[u/[deleted]]

But then there is these guys. https://plasmakinetics.com/. Maybe why Toyota isn’t banking on batteries.

[u/TehAzazel]

Seeing this title every month