26 Feb 2018

Battery technology

Although hard to admit, I am behind in battery technology. When I left commercial industry some 10 years ago, lithium polymer batteries were new.

What I do know is that electric cars still have insufficient range to allow "normal" people to be interested. Electric cars are still expensive and the ranges generally insufficient for a long journey, although probably fine for most domestic journeys such as shopping and local travel.  I note the "new" FT818 portable from Yaesu still talks about a NiMH battery pack.

There is no doubt that a breakthrough is needed still, especially for electric cars. Until the price of batteries comes down a long way, charging times are slashed and capacity dramatically increased, we are going to struggle.

Batteries need to improve on many fronts. I am sure technology has moved on, there is lots of research, but what is needed is a real breakthrough. I am pretty sure I have not missed this.

See https://www.ft.com/content/46adb98c-d8ef-11e7-9504-59efdb70e12f .

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