New battery could drive your car for around 650kms on a single charge

A new breakthrough in Lithium-Air battery development can make this a reality

Don’t get excited as yet as the breakthrough in the new battery technology is still a decade away. Cambridge scientists have managed to develop a working laboratory demonstration of a Lithium-oxygen battery which has a very low cost weigh almost one-fifth of conventional car batteries used today. This new breakthrough will enable electric cars to match the range of petrol and diesel cars.

Scientists have developed a working laboratory demonstrator of a lithium-oxygen battery which has very high energy density, is more than 90% efficient, and, to date, can be recharged more than 2000 times, showing how several of the problems holding back the development of these devices could be solved.

The Telegraph reported that the Cambridge scientists managed to overcome a number of obstacles to develop the prototype battery. The development of Lithium-air batteries has a very high energy density which could also transform the renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

Previous versions of the battery were prone to dying faster as they had the tendency of developing faults, causing them to short-circuit and explode, apart from being inefficient and unstable with multiple charge and discharge cycles.

The new design now uses a carbon electrode made from grapheme. This is reported to overcome the problems and has so far been recharged successfully for more than 2,000 times.