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Miracle battery tech announced (again)

Modern EVs are good, but not excellent.

Most are down on range when compared to their ICE or hybrid equivalent and rapidly changing tech means you lose almost half the price as soon as you drive it off the showroom floor.

Despite these drawbacks, they do seem to be selling well because, as we know, the next generation of battery tech is still a way off. Lithium-ion batteries are about the best we have right now so manufacturers are pretty much sticking with them, or some slight variant thereof.

However, every now and then we're teased with the promise of a much better battery tech that promises to deliver more power, longer life and safer operation.

Another such tech was announced this week.

While Toyota continues to promise that its solid-state battery breakthrough will deliver stunning results "real soon now", another company is saying that it's pushed the existing tech to new heights.

Claiming a lifespan of over 20,000 cycles, enough to power an average EV for more than 5 million miles, this tech sounds great -- so far.

A consortium of researchers based at the University of Saskatchewan claim to have come up with this new battery tech.

The secret is allegedly the use of an electrode made from a single crystal. This crystaline electrode does not degrade in the same way that conventional electrodes do, thus leading to the far longer life being claimed. According to the published article a battery made with these electrodes shows no degradation after six years of use.

Could this be a significant breakthrough that will have huge flow-on effects for EVs?

Well I wouldn't hold my breath. Such annoucements are commonplace these days, as researchers and startup companies seek funding to further their development work.

The reality however, is that we've not see any significant improvements in battery tech for quite a few years now and progress has been decidedly incremental rather than ground-breaking.

It is quite possible that the next true breakthrough will come from a chemistry other than lithium-ion but even once the discovery is made it will take quite a few years to reach commercialisation.

In the meantime, new car buyers will just have to live with the fact that the EV they buy today will plummet in value almost overnight as manufacturers race to bring out better models on an almost monthly basis.

This is, of course, great news for those willing to settle for a second-hand EV. It won't be long until dealers forecourts are overflowing with 5-6 year-old EVs going for a song. Unfortunately, one can only wonder what will become of all those cheap EVs in a further 8-9 years, once the batteries start failing and the cost of replacement far exceeds the total value of the vehicle.

I suspect that we will have to dramatically ramp up our recycling efforts to cope.

Carpe Diem folks!

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