Electric vehicles won’t sell in mass-market numbers until batteries are better and cheaper.
They’ll need to propel cars at least 500 kilometres between charges and be recharged in minutes, rather than hours — in short, to offer the convenience of internal combustion, at roughly the same price.
 |
| E-vehicle batteries |
Despite vast investments of money and brainpower, we remain far from that Holy Grail. The main form of car battery, generically called lithium-ion, has improved only marginally over the past decade: In a pattern similar to cancer research, apparent breakthroughs are regularly proclaimed, then vanish. As a result, “better” still means bigger and more expensive.
Researchers continue to beaver away at it, though, combining intricate detail and such surprising creativity that someone has even come up with the idea of using seaweed in a battery. Read More
