10 Battery Technologies Currently In Development

As the electric vehicle technology continues to advance, batteries are becoming more crucial than ever. In the past decade, advances in battery technology have already enabled electric vehicles to travel further, charge faster, and become more affordable for consumers. Battery technology is rapidly evolving, with new and exciting developments around the corner.

Current battery technologies which were breakthrough at the beginning now offer limited performance and require frequent charging. Today’s lithium-ion batteries, which is the most common type used, can only hold up to a few hundred watt-hours per kilogram, and this makes it difficult to engineer devices that can last long enough without having to recharge. With these other battery technology advancements, scientists are looking to come up with results for more efficient, lighter, and safer batteries that can hold more charge and last longer.

With newer battery alternatives, car manufacturers like Toyota are looking into making battery packs lighter in weight, have higher energy densities to store more charges and provide longer ranges, charge faster without causing battery degradation, and be recyclable to improve sustainability. Battery technology is the most critical section of electric vehicles today, and the continuous evolution of batteries will continue to transform the industry.

Updated on 10th February 2024: This article has been refreshed to reflect the current 2024 EV battery technology landscape. Newer developments regarding these battery technologies have been incorporated into the article to keep it fresh and up to date.

In order to give you the most up-to-date information possible, the data used to complete this article was sourced directly from battery manufacturer websites and various authoritative sites, including GreenTechMedia, TransparentMarketResearch, MarketWatch, EnergyStorage, ScienceDirect, IEEE, and Electrek.

1 Silicon Anode Lithium-Ion Batteries

This is a lithium-silicon battery where the charge carriers are a lithium-ion and a silicon-based anode. Due to the silicon materials, the specific capacity is much larger. Silicon has a 400-percent volume change and is highly reactive when it is in a charged state, so commercial batteries use it to make up approximately 10 percent of the anode instead.

Panasonic Has Partnered With Sila Nanotechnologies

Sila Nanotechnologies is a startup company pursuing the target of replacing graphite in lithium-ion anodes with high-performance silicon anodes. Daimler AG is heavily invested and is partnering with them to make it a reality with corporate and venture funding of $170 million in 2019. In December 2023, Panasonic announced that they had entered into a partnership with Sila Nanotechnologies to produce the Titan Silicon battery.

2 Solid-State Batteries

Solid-state battery replaces the liquid or polymer gel electrolytes found in lithium-ion and lithium polymer batteries with solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte. They provide solutions for lithium-ion battery problems like flammability, poor strength, limited voltage, poor cycling performance, and unstable solid-electrolyte interphase formation, and bring about faster charging, higher voltage, and longer cycle life.

Toyota’s 745-mile Solid-state Battery Is In The Works

Toyota is working towards making its groundbreaking 745-mile solid-state battery available by 2027 or 2028 in production-ready models. A few challenges have impeded the technology over the years like its very high cost of production, its sensitivity to temperatures and pressures, and the presence of dendrites.

Companies Leading The Solid-state Battery Movement:

• Toyota
• CATL
• BYD
• Panasonic
• Quantum Scape
• Solid Power

3 NanoBolt Lithium Tungsten Batteries

NanoBolt Lithium Tungsten Batteries improve on the existing lithium battery technology. The overall energy storage of these batteries as well as their rate of recharge is improved by the addition of carbon multilayered nanotubes as well as tungsten. These layers of the nanotubes increase the storage area for the ions and bring about high efficiency through the web structure they create. These batteries can store more power than traditional lithium-ion batteries.

Expected Year-on-year Growth Of 60.5 Percent

This is essential to improve the driving range of electric vehicles. A large NanoBolt Lithium Tungsten battery can be charged rapidly using solar energy. LG Energy Solution, which produces the batteries used in the Chevy Volt, Bolt EV, and Chrysler Pacifica is one of the forefront competitors working on this battery technology. BAK Group, Nyobolt, and CALT are also working on the technology. NanoBolt projects a year-on-year market size growth of 60.5-percent from $47m In 2021 to over $5.1bn in 2031.

4 Lithium-Sulfur Battery

Lithium-sulfur battery has a high specific energy. These batteries are light in density like water primarily due to the combination of the moderate atomic weight of sulfur and the low atomic weight of lithium. Unlike conventional lithium-ion batteries, lithium-sulfur batteries replace cobalt with sulfur which has a higher energy density. This makes it able to hold more energy. Compared to cobalt, sulfur is more abundant and cost-effective.

Stellantis And Lyten To Make Lithium-Sulfur Battery

This investment into Lyten is powered by Stellantis Ventures, Stellantis’ venture capital arm which has a sustainable future goal for 2030 called Dare Forward 2030, backed by a financial investment of €300 million. Lithium-Sulfur battery has the potential to increase the current battery range average of about 250 to 300 miles. LG Energy Solutions, which produces batteries for Tesla is working on a lithium-sulfur battery.

5 New-Generation Lithium-Ion Battery

The “next-generation lithium-ion battery” (NGLB), is a new battery technology that will offer significantly improved performance in terms of charge time and overall lifespan. NGLB cells are predicted to be able to keep double or even triple the quantity of charge compared to traditional lithium-ion batteries. This means machine batteries could last up to three times longer than before without needing a substantial increase in size or weight.

Companies Working On Next-generation Lithium-ion Batteries:

• Samsung
• LG Energy Solutions
• Panasonic

The unique batteries are designed mainly for electric vehicles and different large applications, but they could be utilized in anything from smartphones and laptop computers to wearable devices. The commitment to improved energy and longevity makes NGLBs a tempting option for any number of applications going forward.

Metal hydrogen battery, also known as nickel-hydrogen battery, is a rechargeable electrochemical power source based on nickel and hydrogen that boasts superior performance due to their capacity and efficiency. They offer several times more energy than current lithium-ion batteries and can achieve 85 percent efficiency, and a long life of about 20,000 charge cycles.

A New Metal Hydrogen Battery That Can Last 30,000 Charging Cycles

Enervenue claims auto manufacturers have already placed a 7GWh backlog of orders for its battery for models that would be out from 2025. This innovative battery technology can also charge faster than before, and the cells can withstand overcharging if the heat that is being generated can be dispersed. However, the greatest bonus this breakthrough battery tech offers is its environmental friendliness and ability to be recycled. These batteries don’t comprise toxic solvents, which means fewer concerns arise if they get damaged or exposed to high temperatures.

7 Zinc-Manganese Oxide Batteries

Zinc-Manganese Oxide batteries (ZMO), a promising solution for the development of sustainable energy storage systems are composed of two electrodes: an anode made of zinc and a cathode made of manganese oxide. This hybrid mix gives ZMO batteries outstanding stability, but its lower energy density is a major drawback as it is unable to store enough charge in its cells to make it a worthy competitor to lithium-ion batteries.

Zinc-Manganese Oxide Technology A Cheaper Alternative To Li-ion

They are also normally less expensive than lithium-based batteries because the zinc component is much easier to attain and less expensive than lithium components. Although this means that due to zinc’s low energy density, a higher capacity cell would need to be produced to measure up with the lithium-ion batteries. They are safe and non-flammable and suitable for use in virtually any device or application.

8 Cobalt-Free Lithium-ion Battery

CATL, the Chinese EV battery manufacturer, intends to be the first producer of cobalt-free lithium-ion batteries. It started selling them in 2021. Tesla also equipped nearly half of the vehicles it sold in the first quarter of 2022 with cobalt-free lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. These cobalt-free lithium-ion batteries use nanoparticles, such as silicon or carbon, as the anode material.

Cobalt-Free Lithium-ion Battery Has Many Advantages

Researchers at MIT designed a new battery material that includes an organic cathode instead of nickel or cobalt. They have increased energy density, charge and discharge rates, and safety. Their reduced resource consumption and decreased toxicity levels is a major environmental benefit. They have higher energy densities, longer cycle life and faster charging times of up to five times the capacity, 1,500 charge cycles, and three times the speed respectively of some conventional Li-ion batteries, as well as lower production costs due to reduced resource consumption, and improved safety with less heat dissipation during charging/discharging processes.

9 Organosilicon Electrolyte Batteries

Organosilicon batteries are much more fire-resistant than lithium-ion batteries and have improved electrochemical performances. They also have superior safety and stability characteristics. When the organosilicon electrolyte is used as a co-solvent, it can boost cell life, capacity, and invariably, battery range.

Organosilicon Electrolyte Batteries Seem To Have Great Potential

Market projection claims the organosilicon technology market will grow by 64.8-percent year-on-year from $28.2 million In 2021 to over $4 billion in 2031. To facilitate this technology, researchers are working on some types of organosilicon such as silane, polysiloxane, siloxane, as well as polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes to check their molecular designs, chemical, thermal, and electrochemical stability, ionic conductivity, and safety. These batteries will be safer than standard lithium-ion chemistries due to the absence of flammable liquid electrolytes. They also have fewer hazardous materials in their composition.

10 Sodium-Ion (Saltwater) Battery

A saltwater battery is basically a container of salt water and two electrodes that generate electricity when connected to an external power source. The two electrodes, typically made of carbon, react with the sodium sulfate electrolyte contained in the salt water and store energy in the form of ions. They have a long lifespan. They don’t need as much maintenance as their lithium-ion counterparts.

JAC Motors To Launch A Sodium-ion Mass-produced EV

This is why it can store energy for long periods without losing it. The biggest benefit of saltwater batteries is they can be produced at a fraction of the cost of lithium-ion batteries. Also, they are non-toxic. The disadvantage is that they cannot store as much charge as lithium-ion batteries due to their low energy density and can’t be charged as many times as lithium-ion batteries. The Yiwei EV, the brand JAC Motors will use to launch sodium-ion mass-produced EV, is a small hatchback with a projected range of 157 miles on the WLTP scale.