U.S. 5X Battery Research Sets Three Paths For Replacing Lithium 172
dcblogs writes "One year ago this month, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $120 million plan to develop a technology capable of radically extending battery life. 'We want to change the game, basically,' said George Crabtree, a senior scientist at Argonne National Laboratory and a physics professor who is leading the effort. The goal is to develop a battery that can deliver five times the performance, measured in energy density, that's also five times cheaper, and do it in five years. They are looking at three research areas. Researchers are considering replacing the lithium with magnesium that has two charges, or aluminum, which has three charges. Another approach investigates replacing the intercalation step with a true chemical reaction. A third approach is the use of liquids to replace crystalline anodes and cathodes, which opens up more space for working ions."
Re:2x Lithium battery and cars still don't work (Score:2, Informative)
OK, lets try the math:
Battery:
(1 kWh/ $500) * 1000 cycles / (300 Wh/mi) = 6.67 mi / $
Gasoline:
(1 gallon / $3.50) * (30 miles / gallon) = 8.57 mi / $
There seems to be lots of uncertainty on battery cost. Several car makers say their packs are under $500 / kWh (One article said Elon Musk expects sub-$200 "soon"). The Tesla Model S 60 kWh battery is warranted for 125k miles, which would seem to be at least 625 cycles is expected.
This certainly seems to me like it is within a factor of 2 of gasoline. A 5x change like talked about in this article would make gasoline not at all competitive.