Batteries

By focusing on the way lithium moves between the two electrodes, scientists in the Netherlands have come up with a new battery design that promises much faster charging rates, which could help improve the grid storage capability of renewable energy.

Tesla's Battery Day and annual shareholder meeting involved a foreshadowing of big leaps in battery technology, the promise of affordable electric cars and the unveiling of a mind-bending new performance option, known as Plaid mode.

Estonia's Skeleton Technologies and Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology have partnered up to complete development on what they're calling the SuperBattery for EVs – "a groundbreaking graphene battery with a 15-second charging time."

Porsche has now made it easier for drivers to take its Taycan electric supercar for a spin at special track days, by developing its own monster battery pack on wheels that can charge up to 10 cars at once.

We’ve seen the likes of Nissan and Renault make moves to give their electric vehicle batteries a second life as energy storage devices, and now Volvo has revealed plans to do the same with the help of startup Batteryloop.

A new device from engineers at TU Delft overcomes some of the dependability issues of lithium-metal batteries thanks to a new electrolyte that breaks down and forms a key protective layer during charging.

A team at Clemson University has come up with a new design that overcomes some of the problems with incorporating silicon into lithium-ion batteries, demonstrating a lightweight device that could be used to power satellites and spacesuits.

Just because a lithium-ion battery no longer holds a charge doesn't mean it no longer holds any value. It still contains useful metals, which can now be reclaimed via a more eco-friendly technique – the key ingredient is orange peel waste.

Scientists at Pennsylvania State University are putting forward a new solution to one of the key problems plaguing lithium metal batteries so far, demonstrating a self-assembling layer that helps to keep them in working order.

Scientists have demonstrated a multifunctional battery that doubles as the structural material of a scorpion-shaped robot. They estimate this technology could provide future robots with as much as 72 times the power of current configurations.

Plans are afoot to build a monster battery cell production facility in the UK, but it's not going to another Tesla Gigafactory. Startup Britishvolt expects construction of its 30-GWh GigaPlant to start in Wales next year.

Most multicopter drones can only fly for about 30 minutes, after which their battery has to be recharged for one to two hours. According to Israeli company StoreDot, though, its FlashBattery tech delivers a full charge in just five minutes.