About time.

Finally an electric concept that can get me to my college in less than a day and a half. Still a bit concerned on the recharge time, though.

I myself have always seent he human race as a failing speciaes because they can be too violent too often. BUT this article is proof that some humans can be good and this will help change the world for the better

I agree with ideceased, some of us seem to be complete idiots much of the time, especially the ones in higher places then the average Joe, but sometimes they can brighten up and show what they can do...

Weight and range is one thing - but how bought charge times? Sure you can go 500 miles but do you need to charge the car for 2 hours to make it go 100?

All irrelivant in the end really as ultracapacitors will take over inevitably as they have minute charge speeds depending how high a current you can pump into it to charge it and they do not suffer from memory defects while being very light and environmentally friendly using carbon nanotubes rather then lithium

and they are as close to comercial use as this tech

Why don't we get truckloads of these new IBM batteries and take them to wind farms to be charged up with green electric. when charged, simply drive the trucks back to town and swap flat auto batteries with re-chaged ones. saves installing chargeing up points in cities - just use petrol filling stations (gas stations)

100 mile range has NEVER been a non starter. Many are very happy to charge their car, like their cell phone, every night and have 100 miles range for the next day. 300 mile range is for long distance trips, which many people seldom take. They problem is the price of the batteries that add to the cost of the car. High price of cars in comparison to quality and styling never work.

My biggest concern here is how much energy you are putting in a small place. Current cell phone batteries have the same energy density as TNT. How do we ensure that a malfunction does not release this energy all at once?

Gasoline has the advantage of needong oxygen and not being explosive except under specific conditions. How will we manage safety in a device that is designed to release energy without any external substance needed?

In fact how do we ensure that these batteries cannot be converted into a bomb?

Better range is great, but we don't necessarily need a huge range in order for electric vehicles to be practical on the small and local scale. In fact, that is what they are best suited for, I argue in this article that the mass use of electric cars is likely to cause more harm than good:

http://selfdestructivebastards.blogspot.com/2009/10/electric-cars-in-small-doses.html

The one really big item that almost everyone overlooks is that electric motors are generators of ozone. If everyone is driving an electric motor powered car we will be creating a huge polution problem that may be worse then the one we currently have.

There is something on the horizon already about this and it is an Ultra-capacitor type made from a company called EEstor. Can go 500 miles and is in the works to work with Lockheed Martin (Home Securtity) and Zenn car company get first dibs on using it for it's electric cars as well.

@danceman
electric motors, generators of ozone?
do you even know how an electric motor works?
your comment really made me laugh.

By the way if electric motors did generate ozone, then it would be quite simple to solve the problem with the depletion of the ozone layer.

Here's hoping their crack team of propellerheads is up to the task. A major breakthrough in battery tech can give the electric car market legitimacy it lacks today (not to mention eliminating vastly complex fuel-electric hybrid systems).

Taking it a step further, should the auto industry settle on a *standardized* battery, then we can have battery exchange stations that will give us effectively unlimited range.

I'm a little concerned about the lithium source issue, though. Too much of the known deposits are in too few places--of dubious political stability.

500 miles? It's a thousand miles from MI to FL. The round trip to my nearest relative is 600 miles and I can only stand them a day! 500 miles is NOT enough

@trollhattan
There is exactly that type of system being tested now, I was reading about it (in Wired I believe) a while back. An innovator came up with the idea that he would approach a car company to just make the electric car, ignoring the battery - which is the single biggest stumbling block for car companies trying to get into electrics right now. Then make the batteries modular, and set up charging stations everywhere. Long trip? Pull into a station, and they quick-swap out your battery for a fully charged one. You pay basically a subscription/usage fee based on your energy usage, at a fraction of the cost of gasoline operations, and the company uses that money to maintain/expand the charging network. I thought it was brilliant. It also has the benefit of being fairly modular, so as new battery tech is developed, it could be adapted to fit the system.

I think looking for a battery like this is a waste of time. It's not the range that's important but the recharge rate. That's why until ultracapaciters go mainstream, electric cars won't take off. Pardon the pub.

Recharge rates will always be the deciding factor as to when full electrics are ready for prime time. I'm simply not going to buy a car that I can't reliably jump into and drive 1000 miles or more without substantial wait times at "refueling" stops. The concept of electrics as second cars or "urban" cars will relegate them, in the minds of the majority of drivers, to "toy" status...

This report of 500 mile battery is great, but is also miss leading. The Tesla Motors Co.,(http://www.teslamotors.com/) has a battery that will go from 0-60mph in 3.7 to 3.9 seconds & a 244 mile range on one 3 hour charge. 2x more efficient than the Toyota Prius. They say not me "The ones we can actually buy today rarely top 50 miles of range". You can buy a Tesla Roadster just a bit pricey, Those promised for the next few years probably won't break 100, and wide success want happen until batteries get better. Bull go to Tesla website and read for yourselves Also Tesla is coming out with a Tesla car everyone can afford with the same tecnology as the Tesla Roadster. http://www.teslamotors.com/

This looks good.. but like most of these things, it's ultimately something of an incremental improvement, and needs to address the real problems... cost, weight, and longevity, not so much range. There are plenty of buyers who could deal with 100-150 miles per day. Most would not relish replacing a $30,000 battery pack after five years, or paying $50,000-ish for a compact car.

For one, the peak power output of this sort of Lithium Air cell means you have about the same peak power density as with today's Li-ion or NiMh cells.... you can get great range (once they work out the bugs), but it's still going to be pretty heavy, maybe even close to that of Li-ion, once you account for peak power demands. Keep in mind, that Tesla Roadster battery weighs 990lbs.

The other problem is also demonstrated by the Tesla Roadster... current rechargeables have a limited life span, particularly when fully cycled. Hybrids only run them at 40-60% of capacity to keep this, but in a vehicle like the Tesla, you're going to need a new pack every 3-5 years. That $30,000+ pack... not for the feint of wallet.

Any "holy grail" battery technology needs to address long life. That's usually a cathod/anode thing, and at least in the successes so far, also generally delivers a cell with faster charging times and higher current peaks. Not that you're getting any faster charging times at home.. your current (sic) power delivery limits, usually 100A-200A per home, are quickly a limiting factor.

Well, considering that the total width of New York State is 285 miles, I think a 500 mile battery will get you pretty much anywhere you want to go on a single charge. Just make sure to plug it in when you get home.

There is a small company called Micro Bubble Technologies Inc. owned by Ecolocap Solutions Inc. with carbon nanotube battery technology. They just started producing batteries that recharge in about 10 minutes and provide up to 8 times the storage as standard batteries. They just signed on 2 distributors in the US. One is for "wheeled" applications and the other is for static apps like windmills and solar panels. Check out www.ecolocap.com!

In the sixties we also thought we would be colonizing Mars by now, we would all fly around with personal jet packs, and robots would be doing our house chores. I hope this is more than just a Disney ride through Tomorrow Land. I really wanted my Jet Pack. I really hope they can do it but most of the time those fictional accounts of the future are just Science Fiction self-gratification.

If a great battery can be made I think that it should become a legal standard. We know Obabma is gaga over new renewable tech. I think a new government agency should be formed similar to the FCC. Or the FTA (Federal Transportation Authority) should have it's powers expanded, thusly: They will require that all bateries use on American road conform to one of say 6 different form factors (1 for motor cycles, 1 for golf / utility vehicles, 1 for compact cars, 1 for Trucks / SUVs, 1 for heavy equipment, like 18 whealers and construction equipment). The connections have to be standard too and easily connected and disconnected. Why? Here's the kicker! SO THEY CAN BE SWAPPED OUT in 30 seconds or less. Now what do we get? You don't own the batteries that run your electric car, you RENT them. And filling stations all over the world are going to have a stack of fully charged, fully compatible batteries waiting for you in a machine that quickly removes your drained battery and replaces it with a fully charged one in seconds. The batteries can be charge at the service station or at some central distribution facility, by solar, wind, oil, natural gass, or coal, who cares, the point is, it could be far less expensive the petrolium and no carbon comming out of my tail pipe, melting my glaciers. Get rid of the pump, get a robot. Am I dreaming here? Here's another important point. Only the form factor, connection standard, voltage and maxium wieght of the battery would be specified. Companies would be free to compete on batteries capacity and chemistry. So, they will not be able to lock us into "their standard" because we will have our own standard, and they will be forced to compete on what's really important: How far their battery will make my car go. At the filling station you would be able rent a better batter at a higher price. You can also charge you batteries at home too, naturally.

Great, another Liberal Democrat trying to get into another area of your life. Every where you go! Sheesh!

The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of an expanding bureaucracy.

First off - RG, ozone can be created with electricity which is why those Ionic Breeze air cleaners from Sharper Image had to be retrofitted with a filter that turned some of the ozone back in to oxygen. Ozone really isn't good for you to breath and is volatile in so much as it breaks down so it would never make it to the ozone layer.

The 500-mile range thing is great in theory but that is all it is. Let's see, how far is it from San Diego to Redding, CA? And let us not forget traffic. It would take you an hour to get through L.A. alone.
I agree that the ultra-capacitor is the way to go. More environmentally friendly, charges quickly and saves the back of those of us who have to currently swap out car batteries (ever see the size of a batter out of a Mercedes?).

Kudos to IBM for attempting to find a solution but I think they are going down the wrong path.

One solution to the problem of charging these batteries is to buy a gas generator and keep it in your garage.

What about having several battaries, so when 1 is finished we can use another one. Like the same as mobile system.