Article: NEC increases electric vehicle battery capacity 30 percent

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Hello -

NEC increases electric vehicle battery capacity 30 percent - 2012/10/10

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NEC has been focusing on improving electric vehicle batteries recently and has now managed to increase the capacity of high voltage, long life manganese lithium-ion batteries by 30% using a new cathode and anode design.

The Japanese company achieved this by partly replacing the lithium manganese oxide with nickel in the cathodes and then combining them with graphite anodes to offer an output voltage of 4.5V. Typical car batteries today only achieve 3.8V.

A fluorinated solvent was also required to stop the new electrode from decomposing the polycarbonate-based electrolyte quickly. Once added, NEC was able to achieve a recharge cycle of 500 charges while retaining 80% capacity in the battery. As this is only a prototype battery the number of cycles is sure to be improved upon before they reach production.

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CarloSW2

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Just read this myself and was about to post in the Fossil Fuel Free section. It's articles like these that make me wonder when the right time to purchase or build an EV is.

I wonder what the theoretical maximum energy density is using chemistry? After all, there are only so many ways to mix elements and compounds.

...looks like the capacity increase of these batteries is mostly/entirely achieved via increased voltage. Would be neat to see a new product on the market. I wonder how many years it would take?