New battery could triple range of e-cars
The battery would not only change the car market, but double the running life of a smartphone or a laptop, said Dr Qichao Hu, who developed it with his former professor, Donald Sadoway, a battery expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “We’ve got to get a car on the showroom floor for $30,000, not $130,000, and the big piece is the battery: it’s too expensive and it runs down too fast,” Prof Sadoway told the Financial Times.
The new lithium battery does not need the same system to prevent it overheating or catching fire and will be 20% cheaper. Just 500 electric cars have been sold in Ireland, but interest is growing. However, there are concerns about ‘range anxiety’, charging times, access to charge points and the lifespan of batteries.
