Battery breakthrough boosts EV lifespan with simple hack

Sign up to our free weekly IndyTech newsletter delivered straight to your inbox Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter Sign up to our free IndyTech newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. These improvements can be realised just by reprogramming the battery management software, with no additional cost or changes needed for equipment, materials, or production flow.” Lithium metal batteries hold the potential to provide twice the range of conventional lithium-ion batteries, however until now they have lost capacity too quickly to make them practical for commercial use. So when you recharge the battery, the dead lithium will reconnect with the anode, because there’s less solid mass getting in the way,” said PhD student Philaphon Sayavong, who co-led the research. “A car equipped with a lithium metal battery would have twice the range of a lithium-ion vehicle of equal size – 600 miles per charge versus 300 miles, for example. In EVs, the goal is to keep the battery as lightweight as possible while extending the vehicle range.” The research was published on Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature, in a study titled ‘Recovery of Isolated Lithium Through Discharged State Calendar Aging’.