New battery could deliver 1000km to electric vehicles on single charge

The device is the world’s first 1000Wh/kg rechargeable battery, according to its developer Innolith, based in Basel, Switzerland.

The Innolith Energy Battery, which does not contain expensive exotic materials, is based on an inorganic electrolyte, according to the company’s chairman, Alan Greenshields.

Unlike the organic electrolyte in conventional lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles, this inorganic electrolyte is non-flammable. In this way it could eliminate the main cause of battery fires that plague electric vehicle manufacturers, Greenshields said.

“The core of what we’re doing is to [eliminate] the undesirable properties of lithium-ion batteries, in that they catch fire, or even explode, and don’t last very long,” he said.

In traditional intercalation-based batteries, the lithium ions shuttle back and forwards between the two electrodes, but do not chemically react with the material, said Greenshields. Instead the lithium ions slide into gaps within the crystalline structure.

“When you charge a lithium-ion battery, you force lithium ions out of the positive electrode, through the electrolyte and they intercalate into the negative electrode, and when you discharge it the reverse happens,” he said.