As we speak, Tesla Motors is in the process of bringing Elon Musk’s planned ‘gigafactory’ into life. Promising to dramatically increase lithium-ion battery production around the world, many understandably think this is the future. However, if Volkswagen has its way, lithium-ion battery powered electric cars aren’t the future.
It has been confirmed that the German juggernaut is currently working on the latest iteration of lithium-air battery technology. While such tech can be traced back almost 50 years, it is believed that what Volkswagen is working on could actually triple the storage capacity over current electric powertrains in operation. As a result, a battery pack in similar size to the 24.2 kWh one from the Volkswagen e-Golf we recently drove, could actually store about 80 kWh of energy.
Now you don’t have to a be a genius to work out the benefits of this. Batteries which provide additional power obviously increase the range of a car. What’s more, most vehicles on the road as we speak aren’t performance oriented. As a result, future electric cars could feature tiny battery packs yet still achieve impressive ranges and ultimately, weigh a lot less than the current crop of electric cars.
Understandably, Volkswagen is remaining very hush about its new lithium-ion battery technology but when it comes to fruition, it could prove many of the electric car naysayers well and truly wrong.
[Via Telegraph]
