With five battery breakthroughs on the horizon, we are getting closer to commercially competitive electric cars and hybrids.

We’ve been following the evolution of battery technology for a couple of years now, confident that one day soon “smart” batteries will revolutionize the electric car industry. Today a post on Treehugger provides a comprehensive breakdown of five battery breakthrough that signal an electric car revolution could be right around the corner.

As Treehugger’s Michael Graham Richard reminds us, competitively commercializing electrics cars (and hybrids gas-electric hybrids) depends on the development of technology that will allow for batteries to:

• Store more power
• Cost less to manufacture
• Recharge faster

FIVE BATTERY BREAKTHROUGHS

“If only one of these technologies can be commercialized during the next few years,” writes Richard, “(and then further improved through incremental refinements), we’ll see electric cars become a lot more competitive when it comes to price and range.”

1. Silicon nanotubes that can hold 10 times more storage than conventional lithium batteries
2. Lithium sulfur cathodes that can increase energy density by 80 percent
3. Batteries made of ordinary paper, ink and nanotubes that can last through 40,000 charge-discharge cycles
4. Zinc-air batteries that can hold 300 percent more energy
5. Lithium-air batteries with 10 times conventional storage capacity

“Other challenges will be left,” adds Richard, “and it won’t solve everything. But it certainly would be better than what we have now.”

Click here for details on these battery breakthroughs and what they may mean for the electric car industry.

Meredith Simonds Battery Technology battery, breakthrough, Electric Vehicles, lithium, Michael Graham Richard, nanotube, power, smart batteries, technology, Treehugger