A research team from the Chicago Campus of the Illinois University has presented a new traction battery design for modern electric cars. The lithium-carbon-dioxide power cell array can store seven times as much electricity as a lithium-ion array of the same physical size.
According to the official press release, the scientists have succeeded in eliminating the main downside of the Li–CO₂ battery design: specifically, the low number of charge cycles before failure. Normally, batteries like these allow no more than 100 full charge/discharge cycles before they have to be replaced. Changing the formula of the electrolytic solution made it possible to neutralize the carbon produced during the chemical reaction and thus extend the battery lifetime to 500 full cycles while also increasing the power density to 1,876 watt-hours per kilogram – seven times as much as lithium-ion designs have.
Another promising battery type is lithium-sulfur (see the video). In theory, such a battery could hold up to 2,600 watt-hours per kilogram of mass.