Battery Technology

In huge news for zero-emissions aviation, Chinese company CATL is set to go to mass production on a "condensed battery" it says can squeeze in more than twice as much energy as a Tesla Model Y battery, by weight – while being safe enough to fly with.

Sila announced this month that its Titan Silicon nano-composite silicon anode is now available. The anode will feature in the electric Mercedes-Benz G-Class and promises range increases up to 20% and dramatic charging time decreases.

Lightning's wild LS-218 superbike and Strike sportsbike are among the first EVs to get Enevate's super-high density, ultra-fast charging, next-gen silicon-anode batteries – which charge almost as fast as your buddies can fuel up their dinosaur burners.

One of the most exciting companies in grid-level renewable energy storage is Form Energy, whose innovative iron-air technology promises to outperform lithium "big battery" projects at 10% of the cost. It's preparing to scale up with its first factory.

The many cells that make up a lithium battery pack are not all equal; some will degrade and die faster than others. New research out of Stanford has found that the whole battery can live much longer if each cell gets an individual charging treatment.

Geely's electric brand Zeekr has teamed up with Chinese battery giant CATL on an ultra-long-range version of its Zeekr 001 shooting brake, resulting in a production electric car capable of doing more than 1,000 km on a single charge.

A new battery from MIT uses common materials – aluminum, sulfur and salt. Not only is the battery low-cost, but it’s resistant to fire and failures, and can be charged very fast, making it useful for powering a home or charging electric vehicles.

Illinois Tech spinoff Influit Energy says it's coming out of stealth mode to commercialize a rechargeable electrofuel – a non-flammable, fast-refuelling liquid flow battery that already carries 23% more energy than lithium batteries, at half the cost.

The question of what to do with electric vehicle batteries after their vehicular life cycle ends is only going to get louder and more pressing. Audi is experimenting with one possible option: electric rickshaws powered by second-life batteries.

Michigan's Our Next Energy (ONE) believes massive range figures are the path forward for EVs. Its experimental Gemini battery pack nearly doubled the range of a Tesla Model S in 2021, and now it's signed a deal with BMW to do the same for the iX SUV.

Arkenlight and Axorus have teamed up to prototype the first artificial neuron powered by a diamond betavoltaic battery made from nuclear waste. The goal is to develop medical-grade implants with energy sources that will last decades without charging.

Australian company Strategic Elements says it's made a step-change breakthrough in self-charging battery technology that harvests electrical energy from humidity in the air to directly power devices without ever needing to plug them in.