"Even when they're charging and discharging at enormous rates, they don't seem to overheat. " Which implies that the internal ohmic resistance must be minuscule. A bit hard to believe.

About time to fully commercialise this to break Chinese stranglehold on LiPo and Li-Ion batteries.

It could be interesting to put these batteries in new EV's, but I'd rather do an EV conversion of an older ICE car and the lower capacity just will not do. Conversions already take a hit in range since they were never designed to hold EV batteries.

That said, I can see a place where these would be amazing: Charging Stations. Instead of directly connecting the chargers to the grid, connect a 200-300KWH Al-ion pack to the grid, then tie all of the chargers to the battery. The battery could take the brunt of the sudden 250+KW spikes and provide continuous power while recharging at a set lower rate to reduce the load on the grid. Perhaps also useful as household UPS's, like a Power Wall since space is at less of a premium in a garage or bolted to the back of a house.

I will hold out for Quantumscape's solid state lithium metal battery,which is very near production status,with a pilot plant being constructed this year. Twice the energy density of Li-ion,and much faster charging rates. Aluminum-ion is just at the beginning of it's potential.

I really do believe that someday soon we will see an electric car that charges in 10 minutes to 90% or so. I think that will be the magic breakover point where most will say that is acceptable for their car.

The push for more and more electric cars is admirable, some might even say appealing for certain classes of vehicles. But the power grid and generation behind it is ill-equipped to handle this new demand. If we believe that electric vehicles are something we want/need to pursue, then people (individuals, governments, private utilities) need to get serious about adding additional, robust capacity. Wind/solar/tidal are great additions to the mix and I support a variety of generation. But if you think you're going to displace all the fossil fuels with non-nuclear options, you're naive. We need more base load plants. It's really a shame that most "environmentally conscious" folks can't get behind nuclear. If they did, our generation mix would have a much smaller carbon footprint today. The waste issue is not an issue.

I'd rather have a 1000 mile battery that takes 8 hours to charge than a 60 mile battery that takes 5 minutes to charge. Charge while you sleep. No lines , no waiting, no stopping, no nonsense.

Glad to see research of this type continuing! Eventually a battery will result that might convince me an electric or hybrid vehicle is practical.

THis and quantumscape is all vaporware. I have been reading about new battery tech for decades.. and how they will unseat Li-Ion, hasn't happened, not even close. So until someone actually does it count me out.

“ Tesla's Superchargers already pump electrons at rates up to 250 kW – representing a 60 kWh energy transfer in about 15 minutes.”

That’s pretty incredible - a Tesla sucking in 4 times as much energy as the typical American home uses in 24 hours... but doing it in 15 minutes.

Yah, that’s a grid issue as more eVehicles hit the market.