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There currently are some research being done, in solid state batteries.
The research is promising, so far.
Also, Super capacitors will help a lot in electric cars.
Instead of limited to 200-240V batteries, super capacitors have internal voltages of thousands of volts.
They store the power into a large array of caps; meaning, they can suck a lot more power out of those DC fast chargers; and 'technically' charge a battery in a matter of minutes.
What they do is store the extra power in the caps while charging the battery.
if you unplug the car, the super caps will provide the electric motor for power, while charging the batteries.
In other words, those super caps capture energy very rapidly, while releasing them slowly. They also are great buffer banks for regenerative braking, as even with a full battery, they can always store more energy (the DC circuit will just increase the charge voltage over the caps).
The con is that supercapacitor banks contain high energy, but offer a very low range. Meaning, Li Battery packs can become smaller, lighter (as capacitors are lighter than Li batteries), and fast charging them will be faster too.
These, next to silicon batteries are the only research being done today.
Silicon batteries are a great alternative, but only good for temporal solutions.
They can contain much larger energy densities as Lithium, but because silicon expands so much, it's crystalline structure also will be more prone to wearing out.
They definitely are cheaper to make, and I can see a market for it in the CHinese products, where quick money schemes make more sense than durability.
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