Electric cars: are solid-state batteries the future?

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Written by Paul Horrell
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Electric cars will soon cost the same to own as petrol ones dearer to buy, cheaper to run. But range will still be a bit less and charging a bit slower. So people go looking for game-changers in those fields. Solid-state batteries get a lot of airtime. Small wonder. They replace the wet electrolyte in today"s lithium-ion batteries with a solid. Because they"re simpler they could be a lot cheaper, and lighter, and they won"t need liquid cooling. They should also be longer-lasting and fireproof. Possibly much faster-charging too provided you can find an outlet much more powerful than the 350kW top-end jobs of today. This isn"t crazy car-runs-on-tap-water nonsense. It"s been done in the lab. Dyson has staked its new car on the technology. Toyota is all over it. Caterpillar has recently invested in Fisker, citing Fisker"s solid-state technology as a reason. The eminently respectable Swiss Fraunhofer Institute has a major project going, with partners including Cambridge University.

Date written: 3 May 2019

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