Battery 500 Project Wants To Make An 800km Range Battery

IBM, Berkeley and five US National Labs are collaborating in a consortium to make an electric vehicle battery that goes all the way up to 800km per charge.

The project wants to make this happen by using a lithium-air battery, which…

couple to atmospheric oxygen-essentially harnessing the oxygen in the air as the cathode of the battery. Since oxygen enters the battery on-demand, it offers an essentially unlimited amount of reactant, metered only by the surface area of its electrodes. IBM believes its nanoscale semiconductor fabrication techniques can increase the surface area of the lithium-air battery’s electrodes by at least 100 times, enabling them to meet the goals of the project.

If you think the consortium will deliver a fantastic car by the time you need to trade in your current vehicle, you should hold off on getting so excited. IBM says it’s going to be another two years to even see if the lithium-air batteries can be used to make the goal happen. [Smarter Technology via Slashdot]